The embattled Transportation Security Administration is under intense fire.
But the heat’s not coming from disgruntled airport travelers, for once.
Instead, it’s coming from a much more imposing source: President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security.
According to a damning release from DHS, the TSA’s watch list program under former President Joe Biden was improperly manipulated.
It was, as DHS put it, “TSA Corruption.”
“Discovered documents, correspondence, and timelines clearly highlight the Biden’s inconsistent application of Silent Partners Quiet Skies and watchlisting programs, circumventing security policies to benefit politically aligned friends and family at the expense of the American people,” the release said.
DHS further argued that the way these programs were conducted ultimately “yielded little to no measurable security impact and lay at the expense of the American traveler.”
One of those “aligned friends” who enjoyed this TSA program is William “Billy” Shaheen, husband of Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of Massachusetts.
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“After Senator Shaheen directly lobbied the former Administrator, [former acting DHS secretary David] Pekoske gave repeated, explicit direction to exclude Shaheen from the Silent Partner Quiet Skies list,” DHS wrote.
DHS also made sure to note the odd flying mates that Mr. Shaheen apparently liked to surround himself with.
“Pekoske granted Billy Shaheen a blanket Silent Partners Quiet Skies exemption despite Shaheen flying with a Known or Suspected Terrorist on three occasions,” the DHS pointed out.
DHS further called out the seeming double standard and politicization of these watch list programs when former Hawaii Rep. and now-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — a vocal critic of Biden — was placed on that list.
“All the while, Tulsi Gabbard, and many other Americans, were placed on the Silent Partners’ Quiet Skies list with little to no visibility, awareness, explanation, or oversight,” the department wrote.
Additionally, “members of foreign royal families, political elites, professional athletes, and journalists” also enjoyed preferential treatment.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem didn’t mince words when addressing this “corruption.”
“It is clear that this program was used as a political rolodex of the Biden Administration — weaponized against its political foes and to benefit their well-heeled friends,” Noem said via statement. “This program should have been about the equal application of security, instead it was corrupted to be about political targeting.
“The Trump Administration will restore the integrity, privacy, and equal application of the law for all Americans, including aviation screening.”
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