Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Kevin Cramer at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, Canada, on May 23, 2025. (Justin Tang /The Canadian Press via AP)
"Pekoske granted Billy Shaheen a blanket Silent Partners Quiet Skies exemption despite Shaheen flying with a Known or Suspected Terrorist on three occasions," DHS said Wednesday. "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."
President Donald Trump tapped Gabbard as his director of national intelligence during his second term.
The Trump administration claims Billy Shaheen "was hardly the only high-profile individual that was placed on this exclusion list," which also allegedly included members of foreign royal families, political elites, professional athletes, and journalists.
DHS said Billy Shaheen’s "blanket exemption has since been revoked."
"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," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a 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."
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, Kevin Cramer and Peter Welch participate in a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa on May 23, 2025. (Justin Tang /The Canadian Press via AP)
"TSA did not disclose any information on watchlisting," DHS noted.
On Oct. 20, 2023, Nancy Nykamp, then-assistant administrator for intelligence and analysis, approved Billy Shaheen to be added to the "Secure Flight Exclusion List." That means he was "excluded from any future TSA Random Selectee designation, and Rules-based Selectee designation, such as Quiet Skies, Association Based Rule Selectee designation, or Silent Partner Selectee designation," according to the Trump administration. Nykamp notably departed TSA in March 2025.
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DHS said TSA Legislative Affairs communicated with Nykamp on Oct. 24, 2023, and referred to the action taken to add Shaheen to the Secure Flight Exclusion List.
Billy Shaheen stayed on the Secure Flight Exclusion List for 18 months until current TSA leadership removed him.
Shaheen, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced in March that she is not seeking re-election in 2026, but her daughter, Stefany Shaheen, just last week announced that she’s running for a key House seat.
Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on X: @danimwallace.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dhs-says-democratic-senators-husband-removed-biden-tsa-watchlist-despite-flying-possible-terrorist