Corey Lewandowski, the top aide of outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, sought payments from companies seeking contracts with the Department of Homeland Security, according to a report.
Lewandowski, who is also expected to leave DHS this month after President Donald Trump fired Noem, had multiple tense meetings with George Zoley, the founder of the private prison company GEO Group, sources told NBC News.
GEO Group stood to benefit from Trump’s hardline deportation agenda, but saw its government contracts shrink after Zoley and Lewandowski disagreed about the latter receiving payments in exchange for growing GEO’s contracts, which already totaled over $1 billion per year.
Zoley rejected Lewandowski’s bid to be paid based on the company’s new or renewed contracts with DHS twice, according to the report.
But Lewandowski, who served as Noem’s de facto chief of staff, “wanted payments — what some people would call a success fee,” one of the sources said.
In the months that followed, the length of two of GEO Group’s federal contracts shrank. Company leaders believe the lesser contracts were the result of their not agreeing to Lewandowski’s solicitations, a source said.
Within weeks of Lewandowski’s second meeting with Zoley, Lewandowski told a senior DHS official not to award any more contracts to GEO Group, the official told NBC.
Lewandowski has previously denied making money off any DHS contracts, and denied the allegations in a statement a spokesperson provided to NBC.
“This is absolutely false and did not happen — Mr. Lewandowski never demanded any payment or compensation from the Geo Group, at any time,” the spokesperson said.
Lewandowski had already been facing criticism over his outsized role as a special government employee at DHS.
Noem was questioned about both her and Lewandowski’s role in government contracts during a congressional hearing earlier this month.
While testifying, Noem claimed Trump had signed off on a $220 million ad campaign that featured her on a horse in front of Mount Rushmore. The president later told Reuters, “I didn’t know anything about that,” and later fired Noem.
Lewandowski, who has technically been working as an unpaid government employee under Trump, has been within the president’s orbit for over a decade. He worked as a chief aide during Trump’s 2016 campaign and was arrested for grabbing the arm of a female reporter during a press conference. Those charges were later dropped.
There have been allegations that Noem and Lewandowski, both of whom are married, are romantically linked.
However, when asked at a House Judiciary Committee hearing if she ever had “sexual relations” with Lewandowski, Noem accused lawmakers of spreading “tabloid garbage.”
“Mr. Chairman, I am shocked we are going down and peddling tabloid garbage in this committee today,” she said last Wednesday, which was also attended by her husband Bryon Noem.
However, according to the Wall Street Journal, "officials have said they do little to hide their relationship inside the department.”
It went on: "The pair have lately been using a luxury 737 MAX jet, with a private cabin in back, for their travel around the country."
The Independent has contacted DHS for comment.
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