The alleged lover of failed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been hit with claims of “deep-rooted corruption.”
On Monday, the Democrats’ House Committee on Oversight and Reform initiated an inquiry after startling allegations against Corey Lewandowski by NBC News, including that he received financial kickbacks and wielded his power at DHS.
While working as a ‘special government employee’ at the then-Noem-led DHS, NBC, citing sources, claimed that Lewandowski attempted to instigate a “pay-to-play” scheme with private prison company GEO Group.
The firm is the world’s leading provider of detention centers and correctional facilities and has over $1 billion worth of contracts with DHS, including being a major partner in mass deportation through ICE raids, according to its website.
NBC reported that Lewandowski allegedly demanded kickbacks equal to the value of GEO Group’s new or reinstated contracts with DHS. When Lewandowski turned down the firm’s offer to put him on a retainer, he allegedly instructed a senior DHS official not to award GEO Group any further contracts, seemingly out of retaliation. Lewandowski denied the allegations through a spokesperson to NBC.
On Monday, House Oversight Democrats contacted the GEO Group to request internal documents relating to meetings and conversations Lewandowski conducted with the firm both before Donald Trump was elected president in 2024 and during his second term in 2025.
“Corey Lewandowski appears to have engaged in deep-rooted corruption at the Department of Homeland Security, and this massive pay-to-play scheme should concern all Americans,” Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, said in a statement.
“We need answers directly from any companies Lewandowski was soliciting. Oversight Democrats are going to root out this corruption at DHS, and we won’t stop until there’s accountability.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Lewandowski, DHS, and GEO Group for comment.
Garcia wrote to GEO Group Chairman and CEO George Zoley, asking for his cooperation in their investigation.
“Mr. Lewandowski may have used his position in the Trump Administration and close relationships to President Trump and Secretary Noem to enrich himself while serving as a special government employee (SGE),” the letter stated.
“If true, these allegations of Mr. Lewandowski shaking down contractors for kickbacks represent a clear violation of the law and a serious breach of public trust by DHS.”
Last week, NBC News cited four senior White House officials among its sources who said GEO Group and other companies had complained to officials in Trump’s inner circle about Lewandowski’s involvement in lucrative DHS contracts he stood to personally profit from.
A furious Lewandowski threatened legal action against NBC News this week. In a letter to NBC Universal, commercial litigator Adam Trigg demanded a retraction of the story.
“To suggest that Mr. Lewandowski exerted influence over such processes is not merely inaccurate; it reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of federal contracting law,” the letter from law firm Bergeson LLP, earlier obtained by the Daily Beast, reads.
His legal team also took issue with NBC’s anonymous sources, many of whom were protecting “their relationships with an agency critical to their business.”
They also called out Zoley, who spoke on the record, claiming he has “malice” and “well-known ill will” towards Lewandowski.
“His allegations—which are not supported by any evidence because they are false—are so ‘inherently improbable that only a reckless person would’ publish them,” Trigg wrote.
Last week, ranking Democrats on three House committees sent a letter seeking the DHS Inspector General to investigate Lewandowski on claims of corruption and mismanagement.
The letter also accused Noem of “misleading Congress” by testifying at congressional hearings earlier this month that Lewandowski had no role in approving DHS contracts.
At those hearings, which led to Noem’s dismissal, she was asked if she and Lewandowski had profited from a controversial $220 million advertising campaign to promote DHS.
Trump had repeatedly asked his aides if Lewandowski had benefited from the ad campaign, NBC News reported. At one point, the president allegedly told advisers, “Corey made out on that one.”
Lewandowski was hired by Noem to work only 130 days annually at DHS in his role as a special government employee. The pair, both married to other people, have denied any personal relationship.
She was fired by Trump on March 5 and has been replaced by Markwayne Mullin as the next secretary of homeland security.
