Kristi Noem Repeatedly Claimed ICE Deported a Cannibal. It Was “Completely Made Up.” |
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Press Freedom Defense Fund
Kristi Noem Repeatedly Claimed ICE Deported a Cannibal. It Was “Completely Made Up.”
Law enforcement sources told The Intercept that Noem’s tale about a cannibal was a fabrication.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told a preposterous story demonizing immigrants in high-profile public remarks alongside President Donald Trump and on Fox News last summer, about a cannibal who ate other people and then, on his Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flight, began to eat himself. At the time, The Intercept was unable to substantiate any part of the tale.
Now, three officials from federal law enforcement agencies — including Noem’s own Department of Homeland Security — with knowledge of the allegations say the entire story was fabricated.
“It is completely false,” said one senior law enforcement official who is familiar with the allegation but not authorized to speak publicly on the subject.
Two other federal law enforcement officials echoed this, telling The Intercept that the claims were ludicrous and that there was no evidence corroborating the story.
Asked for comment, a DHS spokesperson said Noem was simply relaying the claims of an air marshal. “What ‘fabrication’ of the story of the cannibal?” the spokesperson said. “She was told that story on a deportation flight by one of the air marshals.”
Amid growing calls for Noem to resign — after tarring Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti as guilty of “domestic terrorism” in the immediate aftermath of their killings by federal agents — or face impeachment for obstruction of Congress, self-dealing, and violation of public trust, the false story about a supposed cannibal shows that a willingness to deceive the American public began long before Minneapolis.
The false story about a supposed cannibal shows that a willingness to deceive the American public began long before Minneapolis.
The false story about a supposed cannibal shows that a willingness to deceive the American public began long before Minneapolis.
While falsehoods by Noem and the department have frequently been exposed during Trump’s second term, they are rarely acknowledged, much less corrected, by the secretary or DHS.
“This administration’s pattern of abusing innocent Americans in the street — from tear-gassing kids to shooting and killing citizens — and then turning around and lying about it to try and cover their asses cannot be allowed to continue,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., told The Intercept.
Sitting alongside Trump during a July press conference, Noem offered a prime example of the “kind of deranged individuals that are on our streets in America, that we’re trying to target and get out of our country.” Noem said that federal agents had “detained a cannibal and put him on a plane to take him home, and while they had him in his seat, he started to eat himself.”
Noem also told the story to Fox News’ Jesse Watters, claiming a U.S. Marshal said that the cannibal had previously eaten other people before he began to consume himself aboard an ICE deportation flight.
“Was this bad hombre handcuffed to something and he was trying to chew his arm off so he could escape, or was he just hungry?” Watters asked. “You know, what bothered me the most is that this U.S. Marshal just said it like it was normal,” Noem replied, adding, “He said he was literally eating his own arms. That is what he did. He called himself a cannibal and ate other people and ate himself that day.”
“There was no information about it. It never took place. It’s a lie.”
“There was no information about it. It never took place. It’s a lie.”
The three federal law enforcement officials said the story is fictional. “That is completely made up,” the senior federal law enforcement official told The Intercept. “That never happened.” All three law enforcement sources said attempts to verify Noem’s claims came up empty. “They went to ERO,” one source said, referring to ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, a unit tasked with the standard immigration enforcement process: identifying, arresting, and deporting immigrants. “There was no information about it. It never took place. It’s a lie.”
Asked if the story came from Noem or the U.S. Marshals, one official was unequivocal: “Noem.”
The senior official told The Intercept that........