Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 15
Not sure how this slipped under the radar here. ProPublica published this article a day or two ago about how advertising money at DHS is being spent, and particularly who it is going to.
https://www.propublica.org/article/kristi-noem-dhs...Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts
The company is run by the husband of Noem’s chief DHS spokesperson and has personal and business ties to Noem and her aides. DHS invoked the “emergency” at the border to skirt competitive bidding rules for the taxpayer-funded campaign.
The Department of Homeland Security has kept at least one beneficiary of the nine-figure ad deal a secret, records and interviews show: a Republican consulting firm with long-standing personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides at DHS. The company running the Mount Rushmore shoot, called the Strategy Group, does not appear on public documents about the contract. The main recipient listed on the contracts is a mysterious Delaware company, which was created days before the deal was finalized.
...
The contracts total $220 million so far, leading the DHS ad budget to triple in the most recent fiscal year, according to Bloomberg. ...
But the majority of the money — $143 million — has gone to a mysterious LLC in Delaware. The company was created just days before it was awarded the deal.
Little is known about the Delaware company, which is called Safe America Media and lists its address as the Virginia home of a veteran Republican operative, Michael McElwain.Granted, in the big picture of Trump administration corruption, this is just a drop in the bucket. But it does point to the overall level of unethical dealings going on at all levels of this administration.
--Peter
No. of Recommendations: 10
Thanks for posting this. I had meant to and forgot. This part I thought deserves particular emphasis.
The company is run by the husband of Noem’s chief DHS spokesperson and has personal and business ties to Noem and her aides. DHS invoked the “emergency” at the border to skirt competitive bidding rules for the taxpayer-funded campaign.
No. of Recommendations: 0
Even if competitive bidding could be waived due to an emergency, that still wouldn't negate conflict of interest rules, would it?
Clearly a conflict of interest for at least Nome's spokesperson since her husband is running the firm.
Unclear how much of a business connection Noem herself would have to have for it to be a conflict of interest for Noem.
No. of Recommendations: 6
Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts
One of Trump's biggest and most obvious lies: "I'm going to drain the swamp". LMAO. So much corruption!
Will we ever dig our country out from under all this goddamned corruption?
No. of Recommendations: 2
Clearly a conflict of interest for at least Nome's spokesperson since her husband is running the firm.
"Conflict of interest" is a "traditional American value". Interfering with "conflict of interest" is a "violation of Constitutional rights".
Remember Halliburton being awarded no bid contracts in Iraq, when VP Cheney had a financial interest in the company?
Steve
No. of Recommendations: 5
From the article:
But the majority of the money — $143 million — has gone to a mysterious LLC in Delaware. The company was created just days before it was awarded the deal.
Little is known about the Delaware company, which is called Safe America Media and lists its address as the Virginia home of a veteran Republican operative, Michael McElwain. McElwain has long had his own advertising company (separate from the Delaware one), but there’s little evidence that firm could handle a nine-figure federal contract on its own: It reported just five employees when it received COVID-19 relief money a few years ago.
How, where and to whom Safe America Media doled out the $143 million is unknown. Any subcontractors hired to do work on the DHS ads are not disclosed in federal contracting databases.
Surely the federal government can't hand over $143 million to a company without having them report back how they spent the money, can they? And wouldn't that reporting be public? Where's DOGE when we need them??
