daughter In July 2020, after Noem's 26-year-old daughter, Kassidy Peters, was denied a real estate appraisal license, Noem summoned to her office Sherry Bren, a state employee who had directed South Dakota's Appraiser Certification Program for 30 years. Additional attendees included Peters, Noem's chief of staff Tony Venhuizen, Department of Labor Attorney Amber Mulder and Labor Secretary Marcia Hultman. By telephone the group was joined by the governor's general counsel, Tom Hart, and a lawyer from the state's Department of Labor and Regulation, Graham Oey. A week later, Hultman demanded Bren's resignation. Bren repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, tried to resolve the issues short of resigning, eventually filing an age discrimination complaint. She received a $200,000 settlement as part of a nondisclosure agreement to withdraw her complaint and leave her position. Noem's spokesperson Ian Fury characterized the allegations as an example of how Noem cuts through "bureaucratic red tape". Noem responded to a public airing of the charges by writing, "Listen I get it. I signed up for this job. But now the media is trying to destroy my children" and "This story is just another example of the double standard that exists with the media... going after conservatives and their kids while ignoring Liberals." Fury contended, "The Associated Press is disparaging the Governor's daughter in order to attack the Governor politically – no wonder Americans' trust in the media is at an all-time low." After the Associated Press published a story about the incident, the State Senate's Government Operations and Audit Committee was delegated to investigate the situation. The attorney general, Republican Jason Ravnsborg, was tasked with providing guidance to the legislature as to their deliberations. In April 2021, Noem had called for Ravnsborg's resignation after release of details of an investigation into the death of a pedestrian he had hit with his car. After his refusal to tender his resignation, in June 2022, on his impeachment, state senators convicted Attorney General Ravnsborg on two counts of official malfeasance and by a bipartisan 31–2 vote, barred him from ever holding office again in the state. In October 2021, the Government Operations and Audit Committee invited Secretary of the Department of Labor Marcia Hultman and Sherry Bren to come before the committee to discuss the appraisal program in light of the controversy surrounding the program, Noem, Noem's daughter, and a $200,000 payout to Bren for an age discrimination claim. On December 14,