Kristi Noem wants The New York Times to pull back a story about airplanes her agency agreed to buy as she was leaving the Department of Homeland Security. The paper reported that DHS purchased five aircraft from Daedalus Aviation Corporation, whose chairman is William Walters. Noem later called the reporting “factually incorrect” and “libelous.”
The Times said the purchases were approved on her last day leading the department. One of the planes was a Boeing 737 that had been turned into a large private jet. “The Department of Homeland Security agreed to pay the donor’s firm $108 million for a Boeing 737 airliner that had been converted into a massive private jet, complete with a stand-up bar, two bedrooms, marble showers and a table covered in manta ray skin,” the report said.
