Kristi Noem was asked an excruciatingly direct question about her relationship with her top advisor Corey Lewandowski, minutes after her husband left the room.
“At any time during you tenure as director of the Department of Homeland Security, have you had sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski?” asked California Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove at a House hearing on Wednesday.
“Mr Chairman I am shocked we are going down and peddling tabloid garbage today at this committee,” Noem replied. Her husband Bryon Noem, who was previously seated just behind her through the hearing, had left the room before the question was asked.
The awkward exchange came during Wednesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing, at which the DHS boss was also grilled on her responses to the brutal crackdown by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis, which left two protesters dead.
It has long been rumored that the secretary and Lewandowski, her top adviser, both of whom are married, have engaged in an extramarital affair. They have repeatedly denied the allegations and the secretary has called them a “disgusting lie.”
However, Noem’s refusal to deny the accusation directly led Kamlager Dove to continue.
“It is ok for you to be offended by the question,” she said. “But it is a real question and you should be able to answer the question clearly and without any hesitation if someone is asking if you or any federal official is sleeping with their subordinate.
“You should be wanting to answer that question because it is not about your sex life, it is about your judgement.”
The California congressman said that Lewandowski “has a decades-long record of physical battery sexual harassment, illegal lobbying for a Venezuelan oil company and bringing a loaded gun into a federal building.”
“Trump knows that this guy is shady,” she said.
Last month a bombshell expose by The Wall Street Journal lifted the lid on the alleged “chaos” of the DHS under Noem and Lewandowski’s leadership, also reviving rumors of their alleged affair.
The outlet reported that “the close relationship had already made Trump and his top advisers uncomfortable,” adding that the president had rejected the idea of Lewandowski serving as Noem’s chief of staff “due to reports of a romantic relationship between the two – which he has continued to bring up, officials say.”
The Journal also noted that Noem had moved into a government-owned waterfront house on a military base in Washington, D.C., provided for the head of the Coast Guard, after tabloid photos of Lewandowski “showed him going back and forth between his apartment and Noem’s across the street last year.”
A DHS spokesperson told The Journal that Noem had moved into the house for security reasons and said she pays rent at the property.
The Independent has contacted the DHS for comment about Noem’s questioning at the committee Wednesday.
