Kristi Noem's previous role as the South Dakota governor comes under scrutiny.
Kristi Noem Sparks Controversy After Formerly Pardoned Criminals Face New Charges
Despite her embarrassing ousting by Donald Trump on March 5, 2026, from the position of the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem continues to be at the center of controversies. Her past stint as the South Dakota governor has now come under scrutiny after some of the criminals that she had released have now been facing fresh charges.
A report in South Dakota Searchlight revealed that 12 of the 19 prisoners that Noem had released early during her stint as the South Dakota governor have been charged with new crimes.
Kristi Noem’s Previous Stint as the South Dakota Governor Comes under Scrutiny
Kristi Noem's previous role as the South Dakota governor has also come under scrutiny.
Reportedly, seven out of the twelve prisoners are facing felony charges mainly because of drug-related offenses. The other charges include domestic violence and driving under the influence.
The former DHS Secretary has been grilled for her commutation decisions during her six years in office, specifically for the 19 out of 27 commutations that she had issued. According to the publication, in a bizarre decision, the 19 commutations were granted in 2022 and 2023 without the important endorsement of the Boards of Pardons and Parole.
Noem has not offered any clarity on this action, which drew scrutiny during her stint as the South Dakota governor. However, she did speak about them a little during the January 2024 State of the State Address.
Talking briefly about the commutations, Kristi Noem said, “Last month, I commuted the sentence of a number of inmates who qualified, giving them parole. Now they can begin their supervised transitions back into the community. We will continue to evaluate these second-chance opportunities for those who can prove they deserve them.”
Noem’s Controversial Stint as the Former DHS Secretary
Kristi Noem's role as the Department of Homeland Security Secretary was also subjected to repeated controversies.
However, Noem’s previous role as the Department of Homeland Security Secretary was filled with controversies and repeated scrutiny. From her handling of the stringent immigration policies of the MAGA administration, the tragic killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by the ICE officials, the use of extravagant luxury jets for speculated personal transportation, her $220 million DHS advertisement, and her rumored affair with former aide Corey Lewandowski, she faced some major backlash during her stint as the DHS Secretary.
Kristi Noem, who is currently the Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas, was also reportedly criticized for mandating her personal approval for any expenditures within the department that exceeded $100,000.
Despite her removal, some of her important policies from her time as the DHS Secretary are now under scrutiny. According to the reports, a DHS Inspector General is investigating a $38 billion warehouse-to-detention program that she had formulated with Corey Lewandowski.
This also includes her $220 million advertisement, which depended on no-bid contracts. During her stint as the South Dakota governor, she was also subjected to an ethics board hearing over some serious allegations that she had misused state-owned airplanes.
The allegations also included that Noem had allegedly taken advantage of her authority to help her daughter’s real estate appraiser certification. However, she kept denying these serious accusations. The construction of the controversial detention facility, Alligator Alcatraz, during her tenure as DHS Secretary also drew some severe backlash as reports of an alleged inhuman treatment of the detainees in the facility came in from some real witnesses who had been a part of the facility. It is all set to be shut down on June 1, 2026.