Corey Lewandowski ran 'pay-to-play' scheme at DHS — and White House knew: report

Corey Lewandowski allegedly demanded kickbacks from companies looking to do business with the Department of Homeland Security.

The close ally of President Donald Trump served as de facto chief of staff to recently ousted DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and industry sources told NBC News that Lewandowski positioned himself to skim off a cut from private prison contractors interested in taking part in the administration's mass deportation agenda.

“He wanted payments — what some people would call a success fee,” said a person with knowledge of Lewandowski meeting with a private prison chief executive.

GEO Group founder George Zoley had asked for a meeting with Lewandowski during the presidential transition, before he officially worked for the government in any capacity, and two industry sources told NBC News that he wanted payment to protect and promote the company's DHS contacts. The CEO reportedly told him he wanted no part of that arrangement.

Zoley agreed to a second meeting in March 2025 after Lewandowski took a role as an unpaid “special government employee” after Inauguration Day, and the sources said he offered to put the Trump ally on retainer with GEO Group, but they said Lewandowski demanded a kickback instead – which Zoley declined.

"In the months that followed, the length of two of GEO Group’s federal contracts shrank, and currently several of its facilities that could house migrants sit idle, even as Congress and Trump have poured money into DHS to execute the mass deportation campaign," NBC reported. "GEO Group officials believe that is tied to their not agreeing to Lewandowski’s solicitations, said a source familiar with the GEO Group officials’ thinking."

A senior DHS official told NBC News that weeks after that second meeting Lewandowski told him not to award any new contracts to GEO Group, which Lewandowski denied through a spokesperson, and the company did win a new $121 million contract to help DHS track down specific immigrants.

GEO Group and several other companies complained to officials in Trump's inner circle about Lewandowski's role in the DHS contracting process, according to four senior White House officials, a former White House official and a person familiar with the conversations, and those complaints reached Trump during an unrelated meeting in October.

However, White House officials have not taken any action against Lewandowski, in part because they fear Trump will take his side, according to three sources with the dynamic in the West Wing.

“We are aware of the allegations of pay to play,” said one senior White House official, adding that some Trump aides are troubled by the situation.

Noem had announced she would review any deal worth more than $100,000, but three DHS officials said she largely delegated those duties to Lewandowski, with whom she was widely rumored to be having an extramarital affair. An expert on government contracts said the arrangement was highly improper and likely illegal.

“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,” said Jessica Tillipman, the associate dean for government procurement law studies at George Washington University.

One marketing firm gave up its plans to pursue two DHS contracts after receiving requests from Salus Worldwide Solutions – which is run by a donor to Stephen Miller's America First Policy Institute – to indirectly pay Lewandowski, according to a source familiar with the discussions, and a Trump administration official confirmed that someone from that firm related that experience to them about two months later.

“We are guaranteed this contract, but we need to make sure we are properly thanking the person who gave it to us,” a Salus representative told officials with the firm, adding that Lewandowski deserved gratitude for securing the contract.

The sources said the marketing firm owner was told he could hire one of several consulting firms linked to Lewandowski, and at that point the business owner ended the call with alarm, according to the report.

"He phoned two friends who work in federal contracting and asked whether such an arrangement was normal," NBC News reported, according to the source. "One of them called it a 'giant red flag,' and the other raised legal concerns."

Federal law prohibits public officials from “corruptly” demanding, seeking, receiving, accepting or agreeing to receive or accept “anything of value personally or for any other person or entity in return for being influenced in the performance of any official act.”

A spokesperson for Lewandowski denied the allegations as “patently false" and an attorney for Salus, which is run by Trump ally William Walters, described the source's allegations as "entirely false."

"Had a prospective subcontractor made us aware of such an alleged communication, Salus would have taken every step to identify whomever had misrepresented themselves as an agent of the company and turned that individual over to law enforcement,” the lawyer said. “Salus did not authorize anyone to hire or promise to hire any consultant in connection with any Salus subcontract, let alone as a condition of issuing such a subcontract.”