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The suspect who was arrested Saturday in the theft of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s handbag is in the country illegally, according to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
Ed Martin said in an interview with NBC News that a second suspect, also in the country illegally, is being sought by law enforcement.
It is not believed the suspect targeted Noem for political reasons or because she was the Department of Homeland Security chief, Martin said.
“There is no indication it was because of that. It was, frankly, it was a nice-looking purse,” he told the network in a phone interview.
Martin said Immigration and Customs Enforcement is now involved in the case.
“President Trump’s direction to us is we charge these folks that are here illegally and we prosecute them, as well as deport them when need be, you know, as soon as that can happen,” he said.
“What I can tell you is he won’t be back on the streets in America.”
Martin also confirmed earlier suspicions that the person who took the bag was a professional and knew what they were doing.
“This was not an amateur. This was a person, a thief, that knew how to do this. You could see how he scouted the room out,” he said.
Noem’s $4,400 Gucci handbag contained $3,000 in cash, a Louis Vuitton wallet, her DHS access badge, apartment keys, passport, blank checks, and other personal items.
After the brazen heist from a Washington, D.C., restaurant on Easter Sunday, questions have swirled as to how this was possible, given that as a government official, she has her own security team. Two plainclothes members of her detail were at the restaurant’s bar between the family’s table and the front door.
Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi told NBC: “For the safety of our agents and officers, we are not in a position to confirm or comment at this time. Should criminal charges be filed, the Department of Homeland Security will provide public information in accordance with established procedures.”
On Tuesday, CNN's John Miller, chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst for the network, revealed some new details as to how the thief was able to pull off the heist, telling Kaitlan Collins: “He's a smooth operator. He does this for a living, there's no doubt about that.”
Miller said that an examination of security footage from Capital Burger by the Secret Service and the D.C. Metro Police showed Noem and her family sitting together inside the restaurant when an individual walked in at 7:52 p.m.
“He looks around, he's got black pants, white sneakers, a black jacket, a black baseball cap, and he's wearing an N95 mask like we saw during Covid. And, you know, it appears he might be looking for somebody,” Miller said.
“As a group of people get up from that table, he sits down at the table next to hers, angles over in her direction, and then within three minutes of him entering the restaurant, he's taken that seat with his left foot, he slides the bag that's next to her chair under his table.”
Next, the still unidentified man “takes the jacket, puts it over the bag under the table, picks up the jacket, looks around the place again like he's still looking for who he's meeting, then gets up with the jacket and the bag under it and leaves,” Miller explained.
He added that the bag was almost certainly what drew the thief to the table, “because you got a $4,400 bag, you know there's going to be good stuff inside.”
Noem initially thought the person who stole her designer bag was her grandchild, according to a report.
“She could feel this person as they snatched her bag, but thought they were her grandchildren playing until realizing a minute later that her bag was gone,” Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, told the New York Times on Thursday.
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