Fox News has a big story on DHS Secretary and former Governor Kristi Noem finally having enough with false claims being made against her in the South Dakota media, causing her to issue a cease and desist letter to Sioux Falls website/newspaper the Dakota Scout regarding false allegations about her spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on her state credit card as Governor:
“Specifically, your website repeatedly, and inaccurately, refers to all charges on credit cards used by the Office of the Governor of South Dakota as charges of my client—allowing a conclusion by multiple commenters on the site and other news outlets that my client violated the laws of South Dakota or stole taxpayer funds for her personal use,” it continued. “We demand that The Dakota Scout immediately cease spreading these false, misleading, and inaccurate statements and take immediate and significant steps to correct past inaccuracies.”
The Dakota Scout has for months reported that Noem racked up more than $650,000 in credit card transactions on a government-issued card during her gubernatorial career, which has now grown legs in the state as other outlets publish similar reports.
However, receipts reviewed by Fox Digital, as well as outlined in the cease-and-desist letter, show that Noem used her government credit card about 30 times across her tenure as governor for a total of $2,056.72.
and..
“This is fake news,” Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for Noem in her personal capacity, told Fox News Digital of the outlet’s reports in recent months. “They’ve been told it’s fake news, and it’s been proven to them, but they’re still at it.”
and..
The outlet acknowledged that the governor’s office had requested a correction but brushed off the email, including writing “heh” in the response.
“I have reviewed your letter. We do not comment on pending litigation. Heh,” read the email, which was sent by The Dakota Scout co-founder, Jonathan Ellis.
The article also goes hard against Austin Goss, one of the primary authors of the articles taking the former Governor to task in their allegations.
The majority of The Dakota Scout’s coverage on the expenses was authored by journalists Ellis and Austin Goss.
Goss previously made national headlines in 2023 when he was arrested for impersonating Noem in what he said was a prank phone call. Goss was arrested in May 2023 after using a prank website to make it appear a phone call was made from Noem’s personal cellphone number.
Again, read that and more here.
The extensive Fox News story even linked to this website (One of my kids said “you’re Fox famous!) regarding my note on Goss potentially running for Auditor.
It’s interesting that the Fox article brings up Auston Goss because after the cease and desist letter was issued and only hours before the Fox News article was posted, Goss announced he’s leaving Pierre for military training in Maryland:
That seems …coincidental.
The bottom line from the Noem camp is that despite the claims being floated in the media, directly she spent far less than they’re claiming, and the expenses were across the office:
The letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, detailed that in 2019 Noem did not have a government-issued credit card, that she spent $55.44 on her card in 2020, $841.21 in 2021, $730.19 in 2022, $429.88 in 2023 and $0 in 2024. The grand total comes to $2,056.72 in expenses on Noem’s card specifically.
Noem’s gubernatorial office told the outlet in the letter that the office of the state auditor initially provided the outlet with a spreadsheet of monthly official expenses “for several state employees, not just the governor,” which Noem’s office said led to the outlet’s “incorrect conclusion that ‘The monthly totals show that Noem spent nearly $650,000 from the time she took office in 2019 through April of this year.’”
According to reports, Noem’s legal team will be sending letters out to a number of other outlets as well.
This actually makes a lot of sense, as I’ve read some of the reports such as detailing when Noem’s team went to Vegas for the “Shot Show” ammunition manufacturers convention. The economic development team was there to recruit ammo manufacturers to come to South Dakota. They’ve been doing a bit of that recruiting in recent years.
It only makes sense that you go where they gather, and they go with a team. If they can hook a big fish that’s nibbling at the idea of coming to SD, the Governor isn’t walking the convention floor – a team is going to be talking with people, and if they can reel someone in, they’re going to have them meet the Gov who tells the state’s story and why they should come, so they have meeting rooms, and a number of associated expenses to pull this kind of thing off. In addition to being the state’s commander in chief – the Governor is the state’s salesman in chief.
Don’t forget – when Governor Mickelson and his team were tragically killed in a plane crash, they were traveling doing economic development. It’s part of the job, so YES, the Governor’s team – and it would be an entire team – spends money to travel and stay at hotels when they’re out recruiting.
Right now, that’s where things sit, as outlets try to make the story juicier (Scout now claims she spent $750,000). We will continue to monitor how this story develops, and whether outlets will be issuing retractions.
Do we remember back when he called Ledermsn claiming he was Gov Noem? Journalist for the National Enquirer, perhaps.
Austin pled guilty to disorderly conduct, I think it was? Not exactly a great example of professionalism.
I like Goss. But that doesn’t make him state auditor material. Especially after Jackley expanded it’s powers. He hasn’t worked there, he’s not an auditor, he’s never been an appropriator, he’s never supervised anyone.
I’d like to see someone like Greenfield or Karr step up and run for Auditor or maybe even someone we’ve never heard of who knows what the auditor does.
Those are good options.
Good for the Scout for being willing to report on this. It’s newsworthy whether the state likes it or not.
Good for the Scout intentionally misleading people? This is some low-grade hack journalism. Did you even read the post before you commented?
A liberal rag reporting false news with a conservative as a convenient target. Who would have thought that was possible?
So, when other government employees travel, they have to follow government rates. This isn’t a crazy concept, but I love the “fiscally responsible” people who are defending it.
For the same Fox article: “Noem’s gubernatorial office did spend more than $650,000 via multiple credit cards for official purposes across her years in office, receipts show.”
Citizens are sick of the semantic chicanery.
How dare someone imply she is unimportant enough to swipe her own credit card totalling $650k? She has people for that.
The buck stops with Noem. Her office spent that money and she is responsible. We all know she was auditioning for higher office on our dime. She was more concerned about herself than she ever was about SD. You can rip the messenger but that doesn’t change the message.
“The Dakota Scout has not seen the letter, but it sounds like it was written by somebody lacking understanding of the facts and the First Amendment. We stand by our reporting, and wish Sec. Noem well on her endeavors,”
Hahahaha savage. Her defense is ridiculous. The money would not have been spent “by her office” if she didn’t do so much national campaigning as Gov. She should be careful here, this might have a Streisand Effect by taking this beyond SD borders.
Seems like Noem is splitting hairs here. If that wasn’t ‘her’ card for the travel, why were they so reluctant to disclose all that date when she was Governor. The fact of the matter is that it was a card for the Governor’s office, if not her directly. If it was really about promoting the state, it seems like she should have owned it then — and said yes we spent ‘xxxxx’ going to the Shot Show or ‘yyyyyy’ promoting South Dakota in DC. I don’t think people really care if the Governor is promoting the state certain places. The problem is that a lot of these trips appear to be her positioning herself for a job with Trump. The other item of interest was her penchant for high end hotels.
The former governor never misses an opportunity to promote herself, even in the name of promoting the state. You can put it in different frames and write all the captions you want, but who is in every picture?
The comparison to Governor Mickelson rings hollow, at best, and is an insult at worst.
And if you think a half million SD taxpayer bucks was something, then wait until you see what multiples of that amount will do promoting “homeland security” featuring a cabinet member in flak jackets, ball cap, and full Trump-babe make up and hoop earrings.
You can give me all the high-minded explanations, rationalizations, excuses, and justifications you want, but by the time you get to the end there is only one primary beneficiary of this “investment” and it is not the people of South Dakota. It is just one of them.
She’s already got 200 million taxpayer dollars lined up to get her mug on screens everywhere.
https://www.semafor.com/article/02/18/2025/homeland-security-budgets-200m-for-new-border-ad-campaign
Like her or not, the positive economic she had on this state is undisputed, or at least should be. Because of her, we brought in faaaar more than she spent. Self promoting, or not, this state benefited. Our attention should be on the current undoing of our prosperity by the current legislature rather than focused on slinging mud about something we aren’t likely to be able to do much about.
Government transparency is always important. Why did they fight so hard to keep these receipts secret?
You apologists should choose your arguments carefully. So far, this is all just a report of data with the overarching conclusions that (a) that’s a whole lot of money in regular SD terms, and (2) predecessors didn’t spend at anywhere near that sort of pace.
Now what I think would be fun is if someone could do a little research and figure out what was going on during some of these dates. I am sure a few are economic development efforts. Some are clearly auditions if you will and I’d hazard a guess some are high dollar fundraiser events under the guise of GOP Governor events. I’m sure the average SD taxpayer benefitted handsomely from some of those events!
The NDS has infected many of the DFP spillage.
You call every atrempt to hold her accountable NDS and its kinda pathetic. Perhaps if you wrote something substantive people would pity you less, but this fanboy style posting is sad. Maybe go outside and meet some potential friends?