Corey Lewandowski, the top Donald Trump ally long rumored to be having an affair with Kristi “ICE Barbie” Noem, sought backhanded payments from companies seeking hugely lucrative government contracts, according to a report.
Lewandowski is accused of requesting payment from the private prison company GEO Group as it hoped to renew contracts with the government that could potentially see its role expanded to assist with the Trump administration’s hardline and expensive mass deportation plans.
GEO Group founder George Zoley requested a meeting with Lewandowski—who at the time was essentially Noem’s de facto chief of staff within the Department of Homeland Security—last year, amid concerns that contract negotiations would go through him. During the meeting, Lewandowski allegedly told Zoley he wanted to be paid in exchange for “protecting and growing” GEO Group’s DHS contracts, which Zoley declined, NBC News reported.
In a second meeting, Zoley offered to put Lewandowski on retainer for consulting work. Lewandowski rejected the offer while further demanding that he be compensated based on the company’s new or renewed DHS contracts.
“He wanted payments—what some people would call a success fee,” a source familiar with the matter told NBC News. Lewandowski has denied the reporting on the meetings.
After the second meeting, Lewandowski allegedly told a senior DHS official not to award more contracts to GEO Group. A new $121 million contract to help DHS locate immigrants was eventually awarded to GEO Group months later in December 2025.
Several other companies also complained to Trump’s inner circle that Lewandowski was using his role as a “special government employee” in Noem’s department to try to personally profit from the DHS contracting process. One senior White House official even raised the issue directly with Trump during a meeting last October.
“If I was a special government employee and I turned to a company and I said, ‘I want to consult,’ and I’m also then going to be directly involved in personally and substantially overseeing the award of that contract, I would say that that would be a blazing red flag of procurement integrity concern,” Jessica Tillipman, the associate dean for government procurement law studies at George Washington University, told NBC News.
“We want to make sure that awards are made based on the merit of a company and their product or service, not because the company bidding on the contract is paying off the person in charge of awarding it.”
Lewandowski, who denies the “worst-kept secret in D.C.” claim that he and Noem are having an affair, also denied allegations that he sought secret payments during his meetings with GEO Group.
“This is absolutely false and did not happen—Mr. Lewandowski never demanded any payment or compensation from the Geo Group at any time,” his spokesperson told NBC News.
There have already been concerns about Lewandowski’s potential grifting and outsized role while serving as a special government employee at DHS. This includes claims that he created an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy by inserting himself into the approval process for all DHS contracts and grants over $100,000.
Noem had already been criticized for delaying sign-off on vital federal aid for areas of Texas devastated by flash flooding in July 2025, which left around 135 people dead, for three days while she personally reviewed the move.
Lewandowski is also facing scrutiny over claims that he personally benefited from a $220 million anti-immigration ad campaign featuring Noem—known for her love of highly stylized photo ops—riding a horse and wearing a cowboy hat.
Scrutiny over Noem’s ad campaign was cited as one of the many reasons Trump eventually fired the constantly embattled homeland security secretary. It remains unclear whether Lewandowski will follow Noem out the door at DHS when she departs on March 31.
Lewandowski previously told the Daily Beast that he has not “made one penny, not a single cent, from anybody involved with the ad campaign.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Lewandowski, the Department of Homeland Security, and the White House for comment.
