Governor Kristi Noem has alleged that the Government Accountability Board “did not follow state law” in handling two complaints of unethical conduct by the Governor. But in accusing an independent state board of “illegal action“, the Governor assumes the burden of proof: what law did the Government Accountability Board violate when it referred the complaint about the Governor’s use of the state plane back to the Attorney General and confusingly closed the complaint about the special treatment Noem’s daughter Kassidy Peters received in her real estate appraiser certification?
The Government Accountability Board was created and is governed by SDCL Chapter 3-24, enacted in 2017 and amended a teeny bit in 2019.
SDCL 3-24-3 authorizes the GAB to investigate allegations of, among other corrupt acts, malfeasance or misappropriation of public funds by any statewide officeholder. Noem holds a statewide office. The complaints include allegations of malfeasance—abusing gubernatorial power to favor a family member—and misappropriation of public funds—using the state plane for personal use and out-of-state political campaigning. The GAB thus appears to have heard and ruled on ethical complaints within its jurisdiction.
SDCL 3-24-4 requires the GAB to keep information, reports, complaints, and related investigative records and files confidential. The GAB has been excruciatingly tight-lipped about these two complaints, to the point of not even telling us which complaint covers which subject or explaining what its ruling on the nepotism complaint entails.
SDCL 3-24-5 allows the GAB to refer any complaint to the Division of Criminal Investigation, under the Attorney General. The GAB has legally referred the state plane complaint to the Attorney General. If the Governor contends that a referral to the A.G. is technically not a referral to the DCI and is thus illegal, then great: the GAB can apologize and correct itself by referring the complaint specifically to DCI, to which the A.G. would likely hand off a criminal investigation anyway. And given the new DCI director’s track record of busting corrupt Republican insiders, Noem might not want to push this point too hard.
SDCL 3-24-7 directs the GAB to hold a contested case hearing if a majority of members “vote that there is sufficient information to believe that a statewide officer holder or executive branch employee has engaged in misconduct” and “afford the accused person the opportunity to respond to the allegation.” The GAB cited this statute in its discussion of the nepotism complaint Monday but did not clearly act on it. Perhaps the illegal action Noem alleges lies in the GAB’s failure to make clear what action it was taking. Perhaps this statute says the GAB cannot simply suggest that misconduct may have happened and leave the case in limbo but must poop or get off the pot: say the accused person has engaged in misconduct and call a contested hearing to hash the issue out or declare the complaint without merit and close the case for good. But if that’s the case, the GAB is guilty not of illegal action, but illegal inaction.
And somehow, I don’t think Governor Noem accused three judges of breaking the law to dare them to call a contested case hearing. (Rule #1 in the courtroom: don’t make the judges mad!) Noem’s immediate outburst and the lack of supporting legal citation or analysis suggest that the Noem campaign is just playing the Trump tune, projecting its own sins onto others with a quick lie that gives its low-information supporters a thin nail on which to hang their hats and dismiss any bad news.
So the governor is now speaking for herself? Doesn’t Ian Fury make her accusations of lies and deceit for her. Maybe she’s taking this time a little more seriously
“The Noem campaign is just playing the Trump tune, projecting its own sins onto others with a quick lie that gives its low-information supporters a thin nail on which to hang their hats and dismiss any bad news.” – CAH –(A+ journalistic analysis says P)
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Noem is following the example of fact-free defense and excuses from her cult leader, trump. We should expect nothing more.
Thank goodness we created the GAB. The lapdog legislature will not hold Noem accountable, or provide any meaningful oversight.
The media ought to stop being the mouth piece for Noem’s and Fury’s fact free excuses and allegations. Both sides is not journalism. Facts are journalism.
Wow! Kristi’s coming out like a bitin’ sow!
Too bad for her that she’s lying again. The laws are pretty darn clear. The GAB has the authority to act on these complaints. The people of South Dakota voted to create the state law Noem violated repeatedly. She has nobody to blame but herself and her bloated compulsive ego. Now it’s well past time for her to face the music. Stop the delay tactics.
She’s obviously tap dancing here to run down the clock past November with the hope that the press is dumb enough and compromised enough to let all of this appear petty and groundless. If these complaints had surfaced with only a couple months before election day, I’d say there might be cause to let it ride until later.
But Noem is the one who created the delays. Just like she’s been slow walking her CRT barrage on our schools and flip-flopping on a special session for Roe v. Wade. It would be a great insult to the rule of law to keep slow walking these charges to help her slip by the next election.
Accountability now matters more than her petty personal political agenda.
“Liars!” * Yesterday Bill Barr was finally revealed to be a liar, enabling Trump to evade justice, in a court ruling.
As USAG appointed by Trump, fat Republican liar Bill Barr similarly to Noem, shifted the burden of proof, and thereby swindled the American people as he short cut and mischaracterized Mueller’s Report of Russian Intervention of the US Election and Trump’s obstruction of justice interfering with Mueller’s investigation, by creating the “official” Department of Justice position of the fake
“impression that the relevant decision was whether to bring a charge against the President, not whether to send a letter to Congress.”
(at 23), US DC Court of Appeals, Decided August 19, 2022, No. 21-5113 CREW v. DOJ
CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON, APPELLEE
v.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, APPELLANT
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
(No. 1:19-cv-01552)
“whether to say something to the public went entirely unargued—and even unmentioned—in the Department’s filings.” (at 22)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/08/19/appeals-court-orders-release-secret-memo-barr-used-undercut-mueller-report
* side note:
Republicans initiated this most recent and continuing chapter of ending all legislative civility and bipartisanship towards Democrats, since its 2009:
240-179 vote, the House passed a resolution of disapproval, a mild rebuke to Representative Joe Wilson. Wilson … interrupted the president with a shout of “you lie” as Obama, [in a joint session of the House and Senate] declared that illegal immigrants would not be covered under a health insurance reform programme proposed by the Democrats.
House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio called it a “partisan stunt”, and his colleagues noted that Wilson already had apologised.
“Joe Wilson’s a good man,” Boehner said.
Representative Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat who is African American, said Wilson would not have made the outburst had Obama been white. He said Wilson’s action encouraged “racist sentiment”.
Of course, Mitch McConnell took over for Boehner and new heights of Republican obstruction have resulted in the packing of SCOTUS 6/3 as a conservative rubber stamp.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/deadlineusa/2009/sep/15/usa-democrats
Thune, Rounds and Noem continue the subversive Republican corruption. Democrats and the press are just now, 13 years later, calling out Republican liars as, well, LIARS.
It is the State Government Accountability Board, literally, the State Ethics Board. It is tasked with determining if State employees acted unethically or through misconduct in the discharge of their duties. There is a difference between “unethical” and illegal. There is behavior that is misconduct, is unethical and is not “illegal”. The Board is not a court. It refers what it believes is “illegal” behavior, a violation of law, to the Attorney General. There are actions which are unethical, which are misconduct, but do not violate the law. The State Accountability Board brings these actions to the attention of the public and the legislature to prompt their corrective action.
Agreed but Noem has access for free state provided legal counsel who obviously advised her thin “did not follow state law” red herring of a non-transparent conclusion. Barr’s dangerous legacy cannot be forgotten. There is A LOT there. It serves as a model for Thune, Rounds and Noem. Noem illustrates this danger here.
https://www.msnbc.com/american-voices/watch/-the-legacy-is-dangerous-reviewing-bill-barr-s-effect-on-civil-rights-doj-98460229694
Bill Barr is out of Kristi’s league.
Nancy, I haven’t heard Kristi step to the public mic to day the words in her own voice, But statements from her campaign, whether from Fury or for many other staffer, belong to her. If Kristi wants to come out and say Ian was mistaken, this comment section is open for her to do so.
We should expect nothing coherent from ditzy Kristi.
Just STFU, Kristi. No intelligent person buys your snitty little slack-jawed statements or pouts anymore. Go home and lie and whine to your spouse if you can’t cork it.
I just have this crazy idea that, when someone says three retired judges broke the law, that person can point to the laws broken and the actions that broke them. I hope the Governor or someone from Team Noem can drop by the comment section and brief out the allegation.
After all, if judges serving on an ethics commission are breaking the law, that’s headline news.
Wouldn’t it be neato if Governor Noem blogged here?
So can I charter a state plane for a trip to get pizza in Chicago in September and how do I go about scheduling this? I know KN is the governor of South Dakota, yet it would seem there would have to exist receipts for fuel to fly the plane owned by all taxpayers of South Dakota. Who is paying those bills? Who is paying for plane maintenance and repair? Are the events she travels out of South Dakota listed on her website setup for Governor of South Dakota campaign? How does she explain these trips as official duties as governor? I want to hear answers from all republicans as I know she will never have to answer to them.
Cory – They’re too busy searching for a shred of evidence that Critical Race Theory is taught anywhere in South Dakota or that it poses any quantifiable threat to any person in South Dakota. They’ll get around to researching the laws to back up their claim that the GAB judges broke a law sometime in November or December or perhaps months after the 2022 election.
Oh yeah, CRT—Team Noem really isn’t very good at providing concrete examples to support its claims, is it?
South Dakota, when do we get back to requiring elected officials to put up or shut up?
Francis, no, Noem as assiduously avoided publicly announcing or documenting her trips out of state.
Why, Grudz, that is the (sincerely) best neato suggestion I’ve read from you. I wish she would read and post here.
If she HAD the capability of reading, comprehension, and retention, she might learn what her gubernatorial duties and responsibilites are and abandon her slothful, wasteful, trashy, ignorant, selfish, illegal, and slutty behavior and do her job.
Ha ha hah haaaa. Got carried away there for a moment.