State Watch

SD attorney general reviewing Noem meeting with official as daughter sought license

South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg (R) announced on Tuesday that he will review a meeting Gov. Kristi Noem (R) held with her daughter and two state employees last year as her daughter was seeking a real estate appraiser license from the state. 

Ravnsborg reportedly said that citizens and state lawmakers have voiced concern about the meeting.

“I have been contacted by concerned citizens and legislators,” Ravnsborg said in a statement, according to The Associated Press. “I am actively reviewing their concerns and I will be following the steps prescribed in codified law in relation to those questions.”

The attorney general did not specify the actions that he may take, the AP noted, adding that his role in state government requires him to provide legal opinions to lawmakers.

News of the 2020 meeting Noem held after her daughter Kassidy Peters’s application to become a certified residential appraiser was denied surfaced on Monday. The meeting reportedly included Sherry Bren, the now-former executive director of the South Dakota Appraiser Certification Program, Peters and South Dakota Labor Secretary Marcia Hultman. 

Four months after the meeting, Peters was granted her residential appraiser certification, according to the AP. It is unclear what transpired during the meeting.

Noem this week pushed back on any allegations of wrongdoing, accusing the news service of going after her children.

“Listen I get it. I signed up for this job. But now the media is trying to destroy my children. This story is just another example of the double standard that exists with the media … going after conservatives and their kids while ignoring Liberals,” she tweeted on Monday.

Noem and Ravnsborg have reportedly had a contentious relationship, with Noem calling for the attorney general to resign earlier this month after he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges related a car crash that led to the death of a pedestrian.