Kristi Noem‘s many controversies not only put her job at risk, but her daughter’s as well. Ever since joining the Donald Trump administration, the Secretary of Homeland Security has faced a little too many scandals. From her alleged affair with Corey Lewandowski to her role in the POTUS’s immigration crackdown, critics haven’t been too kind to her, to say the least. However, 2025 is not the only year in which Noem landed herself in trouble and dragged others along with it.
Back in 2021, a former state employee told the South Dakota legislature’s Joint Government Operations and Audit Committee that she used her influence as the state’s governor at that time to obtain a real estate appraiser license for her daughter, Kassidy Peters. The incident unfolded in July 2020, when former executive director of the South Dakota Appraiser Certification Program, Sherry Bren, was called to meet Noem and her daughter.
Happy 32nd Anniversary to us!! I love you Bryon ❤️. Thank you for making me a wife, mother, grandmother, and living a life full of adventure with me! pic.twitter.com/ZmfHRcfbwD
— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) May 23, 2024
Bren was surprised to see Noem’s daughter in the meeting, while she was already in the process of applying to become a state-certified real estate appraiser. According to CNN, applicants are usually given two chances to apply. However, Peters was given three, even when her application had “serious deficiencies,” as revealed by Bren.
The former executive director of the South Dakota Appraiser Certification Program was later forced to retire following a meeting with Kristi Noem and her daughter. During her testimony to the South Dakota legislature’s Joint Government Operations and Audit Committee, Bren said that she “was very nervous and quite frankly intimidated” during the meeting. However, DHS Secretary maintains that there was no relation between Bren’s retirement and her daughter’s attempt to get a license.
Four months later, Kassidy’s license was approved, but it didn’t go as she might have expected. In 2021, an investigation was launched to assess whether Noem used her influence to get her daughter the license. While the inquiry was ongoing, Peters decided to shut down her business, as it had already caused “irreparable damage” by that time. As revealed by Dakota News Now, in her resignation letter to the South Dakota Department of Labor & Regulation, she wrote, “I’m angry and I can acknowledge that this has successfully destroyed my business.”
“My business is finished, and the years I spent working to become licensed amount to nothing. So, I’ve decided that I will no longer accept new appraisal orders and will wrap up the few pending orders I do have.”
