Reporter accused of orchestrating prank call governor's office connected to federal data breach

Call first came to light in January

It turns out it wasn’t a Congressional committee’s leak of Kristi Noem’s personal information that led to her cellphone number being used to make an erroneous phone call.

Rather, the incident described by the governor’s office in January as hacking of her cellphone turned out to be a prank call coming from within South Dakota.

That’s according to an arrest warrant filed in the Sixth Judicial Court this week alleging Dakota News Now reporter Austin Goss orchestrated a robocall call to an individual identified as D.L. The call appeared to be coming from the governor’s cellphone.

“The caller ID of the prank call had been set to appear as though it was coming from South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s personal cell phone,” according to the probable cause statement attached to the arrest warrant issued for Goss Tuesday in Stanley County and first reported by Dakota War College Thursday.

D.L. is believed to be Dan Lederman, the former Dakota Dunes lawmaker and South Dakota GOP chairman.

Neither Lederman, Dakota News Now or Goss provided comment for this article.

NEWS: Governor's office says Kristi Noem's cellphone hacked, incident follows data breach

The call first came to light on Jan. 23, three days after the governor’s office called on U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the House Ethics Committee investigate a data breach by the January 6 Committee that entailed the Social Security numbers of the governor, First Gentleman Bryon Noem and their children.

The governor’s office at the time connected the cellphone incident to the Congressional leak.