Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski’s top “henchman” has been escorted out of the Department of Homeland Security offices, multiple sources have told the Daily Beast, as the agency lurches from one crisis to another.
The departure on Wednesday of Donald Trump loyalist Joseph Mazzara comes six days after Noem, 54, was axed as Homeland Security Secretary.
Mazzara, who is an attorney with no history of law enforcement, was appointed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Deputy Commissioner less than three months ago by Noem’s chief aide and rumored lover, Lewandowski, in an apparent attempt to undermine and force out CBP’s long-serving Commissioner Rodney Scott. It didn’t work.
After Noem was fired last week by President Trump, 79, Mazzara “emptied his office” and “was walked out of the building” on Wednesday, five well-placed insiders told the Beast. Lewandowski, 52, is set to follow. Scott remains in his post.
Insiders say it highlights the internal power struggle taking place at the top of the organization in the wake of Noem’s departure.
One DHS source said: “Mazzara was very much in the Noem camp, and Rodney Scott can’t stand him. So perhaps Scott was able to get him booted.” A CBP source went further: “With Noem gone, Scott was able to fire him. He had the opening and he took it.”
Mazarra’s appointment had been announced in an internal memo dated December 22, 2025, which was obtained by the Washington Examiner. CBP staff were directed to channel all matters through the new deputy rather than Scott, sources told the outlet.
“He was Corey’s #1,” one DHS source said of Mazzara. “He was Corey’s henchman and sought to fire anyone not loyal to Noem, Corey and Trump,” said another.
A source close to Noem and Lewandowski denied Mazzara had left, telling the Daily Beast it was “1,000% untrue.” A spokesperson for DHS told the Beast it was “false.” A source said of their response: “Well, when they are afraid…”
While another DHS source told the Beast they could not confirm Mazzara had definitely left, he had always been viewed as the next likely departure. “He will be fired soon if it didn’t happen today,” they said Wednesday afternoon.
Mazarra’s exit comes less than a week after Noem’s dismissal by President Trump, 79, following two days of bruising congressional hearings. During the committee hearings, her conduct at the agency—including her relationship with Lewandowski and decisions about how the pair spent hundreds of millions of dollars on questionable contracts—came under the microscope.
Mazzara is a Marine combat veteran, experienced trial and appellate litigator, and married father of six.
Before Noem moved him into CBP in December, he had spent almost a year as DHS acting General Counsel. He had been appointed straight from the Texas Office of scandal-mired Attorney General Ken Paxton.
There he had served as Special Counsel and, before that, as an assistant solicitor general and member of the legal team that successfully defended the embattled AG against public corruption charges. Paxton personally congratulated his former aide on his DHS appointment, calling him “a courageous defender of the rule of law.”
A senior DHS official who watched Mazzara’s tenure up close paints a different picture. “From the day he arrived, Mazzara served happily as the administration’s, and specifically Lewandowski’s, hatchet man,” they told the Daily Beast.
“He personally removed well over a dozen senior career leaders, some who had served in government since the Reagan years, and replaced them with Trump loyalists. Quite the turn of events for him to be removed from his post.”
The same official was scathing about his priorities as the department’s top lawyer. “Mazzara showed no interest in the actual work of the department,” they said. “He was more concerned with ‘owning the libs,’ at the expense of the department’s mission and obligation to keep America safe.”
That assessment is borne out by the public record. ProPublica reported that when a DOGE official called a congressionally mandated civil rights program money laundering, Mazzara went further, suggesting it be probed under the RICO statute, a law reserved for organized crime. The office was subsequently shut down.
Mazzara also filed declarations in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador’s CECOT prison. He argued that DHS lacked the authority to retrieve him, and warned that he would be deported again if he returned. Obama appointee U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis subsequently ordered Mazzara to sit for a deposition to establish whether the government was acting in good faith.
Noem then installed him at CBP to neutralize Scott, who had clashed repeatedly with her and Lewandowski over their enforcement approach. Eight sources told the Washington Examiner that the pair waged a campaign, some described as “evil,” to push Scott out—stripping him of his responsibilities and installing Mazzara to run the agency in his place.
Scott fought back, and the battle exposed the deep schism the Beast has reported on between career law enforcement and the Noem-Lewandowski political operation.
With Noem gone, DHS is being led by Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar while the Senate processes the nomination of Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, 48, as the new Secretary.
