Senior ICE officials went to extremes to shield their sensitive conversations amid fears they were being spied on by Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski’s goons, the Daily Beast can reveal.
As Homeland Security secretary, Noem, 54, and her chief adviser and rumored lover Lewandowski, 52, created a workplace environment at the Department of Homeland Security’s D.C. HQ described by one experienced staffer as the “most toxic” they had ever experienced, and one rife with “distrust, abuse, and corruption.”
One of the more shocking examples was how top ICE bosses decided to use a high-tech electronic device to mask their private discussions, amid fears they were being monitored, sources at the agency have told the Beast.
One said career officials would “use sound machines,” particularly “in the early days” of Noem and Lewandowski’s tenure, because they “thought they were spying” on them.
The contraptions create certain noises that protect sensitive conversations by preventing eavesdropping or recording.
The latest revelation follows a claim made in a damning Washington Examiner long-read about Noem and Lewandowski’s 13-month stint at DHS, published on Friday.
Three people told the paper that Senate-confirmed CBP commissioner Rodney Scott—who the Examiner previously reported had been subjected to an “evil” campaign from the pair to oust him—was “paranoid” that Lewandowski was “spying on him through his work phone and had bugged his office.”
Scott, the paper said, believed Lewandowski was “trying to find anything that could persuade Trump to fire Scott, since Noem lacked the authority to do so herself.”
“Rodney had his cell phones in a Faraday bag,” the source said. Faraday bags—made from conductive materials such as metal or aluminum-coated fabric—block all electromagnetic signals, shielding cell phones from surveillance.
“I had never seen that outside of the intel community, where somebody’s putting their phones in a bag so they’re not emanating and can’t be monitored,” the person said. “I went ahead and put my phone in the bag, and that’s when we had the conversation.”
The fallout from Noem and Lewandowski’s ouster—and Markwayne Mullin’s arrival as DHS secretary—has been spectacular and brutal, sparking a poisonous briefing war.
As the Daily Beast has reported, insiders said the “knives were out” for Noem and Lewandowski after their ousting, with questions swirling around the contracting scandal that helped topple them and has sparked a civil war between DHS and the White House.
Lewandowski has been accused of directing massive DHS contracts to companies owned by his allies and making requests for firms to pay him as a consultant in order to secure them. Lewandowski denies the claims.
After it was reported last week that the DHS inspector general had opened a probe into contracting involving Lewandowski and Noem, and as Sens. Adam Schiff, Peter Welch, and Richard Blumenthal separately moved to preserve records tied to the matter, several stories appeared in the media that painted ICE Director Todd Lyons and Trump’s immigration czar and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller in a negative light.
“So many egos, so many snakes,” said one DHS source. When asked if they thought Noem and Lewandowski’s departure would make things more peaceful at DHS, they replied: “Hopefully for the good people who still work there.”
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS, ICE, Noem, and Lewandowski for comment.
