Kristi Noem tried to save her job with her testimony before Congress in early March. It was Noem’s last gasp before she was let go by Trump, who reassigned her to a new post where she will probably never be seen again.
The problem was that Noem didn’t just testify. She appears to have told multiple lies to Congress, and Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees aren’t letting Noem’s lies slide for one big reason.
The statute of limitations on the referral of Noem for prosecution is longer than Trump’s time left in office.
House and Senate Judiciary Committee ranking members Jamie Raskin and Dick Durbin wrote a letter to the DOJ referring Noem for prosecution for lying to Congress.
Durbin and Raskin wrote to AG Pam Bondi:
We write to refer evidence showing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem repeatedly misled the Senate Committee on the Judiciary during her testimony on March 3, 2026, and the House Committee on the Judiciary during her testimony on March 4, 2026.
A number of her statements appear to violate criminal statutes prohibiting perjury and knowingly making false statements to Congress. Under 18 U.S.C. §1001, it is a federal crime for any individual to “knowingly and willfully … make[] any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation … [w]ith respect to … any investigation or review, conducted pursuant to the authority of any committee, subcommittee, commission or office of the Congress, consistent with applicable rules of the House or Senate.” Under 18 U.S.C. §1621, it is likewise a federal crime for any individual, “having taken an oath before a competent tribunal,” to “willfully subscribe[] as true any material matter which he does not believe to be true.”
The Democrats laid out how the former DHS Secretary evaded testimony, and then detailed a series of lies that Noem is alleged to have said under oath.
