Kristi Noem points finger at Markwayne Mullin over mystery fleet of luxury planes
New reporting about a mystery plane fleet purchased by the Department of Homeland Security has pulled the agency's former head Kristi Noem back into the news cycle.
The ousted DHS secretary is distancing herself from a $464 million plane purchase that critics say has become a costly embarrassment for the department she once led — even though the deal was struck on her watch, reported the New York Times.
DHS paid Daedalus Aviation Corporation, a Virginia firm with political ties to Noem but no prior federal contracting history, to acquire 10 used aircraft last fall through a no-bid contract, invoking a rarely used exemption for cases of "unusual and compelling urgency" and saying the planes were needed immediately for deportation flights.
Months later, however, most of the fleet sits largely idle. Three of the planes are luxury business jets, and one of those has been leased to the FBI to support director Kash Patel's travel, and another was offered — unsuccessfully — to the Pentagon.
The remaining seven are Boeing 737s parked for extended stretches at an airport in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which an internal government document attributes to a lack of staff to fly them.
Now, as scrutiny mounts, DHS and Noem are pointing fingers at each other over who bears responsibility. In a written statement, the department said the Daedalus contract "was made and approved by department leadership before Secretary Markwayne Mullin was sworn in" — an apparent effort to place the blame on Noem, who was fired by President Donald Trump in March.
A spokeswoman for Noem pushed back, telling reporters the purchase was actually "finalized" once Mullin, a former Oklahoma senator, took over as secretary.
Contracting records show the contract's value jumped by $303 million on the very day Mullin was sworn in.
Democratic Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Chris Murphy (D-CT), both on the Appropriations Committee, sent DHS a letter this week demanding "a full accounting," noting that department staff had already conceded most of the planes would not be used for deportations after all.
Daedalus's chairman, William Walters, had previously donated to a political committee connected to Noem when she was South Dakota's governor — a detail fueling questions about how the company landed the contract. A company spokesman said Walters was unaware of the committee's ties to Noem.
The plane purchase echoes an earlier reversal under Noem's tenure, when DHS spent more than $700 million acquiring detention warehouses, only for the agency to begin giving or selling them off months later under Mullin.
For now, DHS says it needs a new contractor just to keep the planes flying — with that arrangement not expected to begin until next summer.
The Rev. Paula White in Grapevine, Texas on June 11, 2021 (Gage Skidmore) The Rev. Paula White in Grapevine, Texas on June 11, 2021 (Gage Skidmore)