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The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General has for more than a month been investigating the process in which three businesses received $220 million for an ad campaign encouraging illegal immigrants to self-deport and featuring outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, according to sources familiar with the probe.

The existence of the IG probe and its inquiries have raised concerns among other investigators within the watchdog agency that Noem and her leadership team have retaliated against them by blocking access to critical information and data necessary to provide congressionally mandated oversight of key DHS functions, including the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

A source in the DHS community accused Noem of “retaliating” by not allowing the IG to “work real cases” because she and her top adviser, Corey Lewandowski, could be implicated in the watchdog probe of the ad contracts.

The $220 million ad contract sparked bipartisan Senate scrutiny during a Judiciary Committee hearing last week before Trump fired Noem, who will leave her role by March 31. Trump, who has since openly criticized the ad campaign’s price tag, tapped Oklahoma GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin to replace Noem.

Republican Sens. John Kennedy and Thom Tillis joined Sen. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, in questioning Noem about the ad campaign contract and whether any DHS employee had financially benefited from it. The senators repeatedly pressed Noem on why it was awarded to three companies, including a subcontractor run by Ben Yoho, the husband of former DHS press secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

Welch and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who is the ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, followed up late last week with letters to the three companies........

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