South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) on Wednesday dismissed a conservative media outlet’s claim that she is having an extramarital affair with Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump adviser who is also advising Noem.
“These rumors are total garbage and a disgusting lie,” Noem said in a tweet Wednesday afternoon. “These old, tired attacks on conservative women are based on a falsehood that we can’t achieve anything without a man’s help. I love Bryon. I’m proud of the God-fearing family we’ve raised together. Now I’m getting back to work.”
A conservative website, American Greatness, published a piece Tuesday claiming that, according to “multiple” sources, Noem has been having an affair with Lewandowski that has continued “for months.” The website did not identify any of the sources.
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Lewandowski was Trump’s first presidential campaign manager. He was fired by the campaign in 2016 but remains part of the former president’s inner circle and runs the pro-Trump Make America Great Again Action super PAC.
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Noem, who is considered a potential 2024 GOP vice-presidential contender, has recently come under scrutiny for a meeting she organized for her daughter and the state employee charged with leading the agency that moved to deny her application to become a certified real estate appraiser. The meeting prompted allegations of abuse of power among some state lawmakers, and South Dakota’s attorney general, Jason Ravnsborg, is reviewing the matter.
It’s not clear what steps Ravnsborg plans to take, and his office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post.
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Noem reportedly organized a meeting in her office on July 27, 2020, to discuss “appraiser certification procedures” which included her daughter Kassidy Noem-Peters and Sherry Bren, the head of the South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation’s appraiser certification program, Bren’s supervisor, and the state’s Labor Secretary Marcia Hultman.
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While Noem’s daughter secured her certification months later, in November 2020, Bren says she was subsequently pushed to retire in a conversation with Hultman. That’s according to an age-discrimination complaint Bren eventually filed against the Department of Labor and Regulation.
Bren settled with the state for $200,000 on March 31, but the department did not admit fault and she agreed not to disparage it in public, according to a copy of the complaint shared by South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
Annabelle Timsit contributed to this report.