DHS Gave $6Mln Deal to Firm That Secretary Wolf's Wife Helps Run, Reports Say

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded $6 million in contracts since September 2018 to the Berkeley Research Group, a consulting company in which Acting Secretary Chad Wolf's wife Hope helps run as vice president, NBC News revealed on Wednesday.

The reports emerged only a week before Chad Wolf is due to face a Senate confirmation hearing on 28 September as the official secretary for homeland security, the report noted.

A DHS spokesperson told the corporate news outlet that Wolf had not known about the contracts until the media questioned him on them.

Wolf has enjoyed a meteoric rise at the DHS. He became chief of staff at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a component agency at DHS, and was promoted to chief of staff to then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in 2018 before succeeding her as acting secretary in November of that year, the report said.

Berkeley Research Group did not have any contracts with any DHS agency until Wolf joined the department as TSA chief of staff in 2017, the report added.