DHS says Democratic senator's husband removed from Biden TSA watchlist despite flying with possible terrorist
The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday sounded the alarm on alleged Transportation Security Administration (TSA) "corruption," accusing a longtime Democratic senator of lobbying the Biden administration to have her husband removed from a watchlist despite him allegedly flying with a "known or suspected terrorist."
New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s husband, William "Billy" Shaheen, "traveled with a known or suspected terrorist three times in a single year," DHS said in a statement.
The Trump administration on Wednesday cited evidence "detailing the politicization of TSA’s watchlisting program under the Biden administration." DHS says that evidence includes discovered documents, correspondence and timelines that clearly highlight the Biden administration's "inconsistent application of Silent Partners Quiet Skies and watchlisting programs, circumventing security policies to benefit politically aligned friends and family at the expense of the American people."
DHS claims Sen. Shaheen "directly lobbied" former TSA administrator David Pekoske. Pekoske afterward allegedly "gave repeated, explicit direction" to exclude the senator’s husband from the Silent Partner Quiet Skies list. Fox News Digital reached out to Sen. Shaheen's office, but they did not immediately provide a response to the allegations.
"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DHS said Billy Shaheen’s "blanket exemption has since been revoked."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."
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DHS said the program has for far too long "yielded little to no measurable security impact and lay at the expense of the American traveler."
According to DHS’s timeline of events, Billy Shaheen was a "TSA Random Selectee" on his flights from Boston Logan International Airport to Washington-Reagan International Airport and then from Washington Dulles International Airport back to Boston on July 20, 2023. "Billy Shaheen was flagged for the first time as Co-Traveler with a Known or Suspected Terrorist (KST)," DHS said.
Shortly after his trip, Sen. Shaheen’s office "made an inquiry to TSA about the senator’s husband receiving enhanced screening on these two flights," DHS said.
He was flagged a second time as a co-traveler of a known or suspected terrorist again on Oct. 18, 2023, and Sen. Shaheen afterward met with Pekoske about her husband "being on a watchlist," according to DHS.
"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.
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.