State backs off legal threat over Noem credit cards
Lawyer representing Governor's Office threatened to violate First Amendment by seeking restraining order
Gov. Larry Rhoden’s office will not pursue the return of state spending records in The Dakota Scout’s possession after previously threatening legal action to force their return.
The Sioux Falls-based newspaper obtained detailed copies of former Gov. Kristi Noem’s state-issued credit card receipts and statements earlier this month after agreeing to settle an open records lawsuit brought against the state by The Scout last year.
The Scout filed suit against state Auditor Rich Sattgast last September after he denied a request for the records, financial documents that state law requires be made available for public inspection. In his denial, Sattgast cited potential safety concerns to Noem and her staff. Sattgast also referenced a state law that permits the records of governors to be released 10 years after they leave office or when they die.
The Governor’s Office was not a party to the paper’s lawsuit.
Months into the litigation and after Noem resigned to take a position within President Donald Trump’s cabinet, Sattgast and The Scout – through its attorney, Jon Arneson – agreed to settle the case, and the records were turned over to the newspaper on Feb. 6.
Representing Sattgast, the Attorney General’s Office and The Scout co-signed a stipulation settling the case, and a motion for dismissal was filed with Judge Margo Northrup the same day the records were turned over. Northrup dismissed the case on Feb. 10.
But before she did, the Governor’s Office demanded that the records be returned.
Although both the Auditor’s Office and Attorney General’s Office had already made extensive redactions before providing them to The Scout, the Governor’s Office argued more information should have been redacted, specifically information about security personnel that traveled with Noem while she was governor, the number of guards in the security detail, and their travel patterns.
Assistant Attorney General Ryan McFall, who represented Rhoden’s office, said in a letter to Sattgast’s office that they were threatening to intervene in the case and seek a restraining order if the records were not returned.
But after consulting with the Governor’s Office and the Department of Public Safety, an agreement was reached to avoid further court action.
“The Dakota Scout would never have agreed to return the documents, and the paper would have defended its First Amendment rights to publish information had it been forced into court,” the paper said in a statement. “However, we are willing to accommodate concerns that the Governor’s Office has with some information in those records. Accommodating those concerns will in no way detract from telling taxpayers how Gov. Noem was spending their money.”
The records involved in the settlement include transactions made on Noem’s state-issued credit cards – she had two – that occurred between the time she took office in January 2019 through April of 2024. The Scout reported last summer that Noem had spent nearly $650,000 on the charge cards.
Following the settlement with the auditor, more than 3,000 pages of records were released to the paper. They include the records of a credit card former Gov. Dennis Daugaard used in the final year of his office.
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