WASHINGTON — Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have launched a new inquiry into outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s top aide, Corey Lewandowski, who allegedly sought personal payments from contractors, as was outlined in an NBC News investigation last week.
On Monday, House Oversight Democrats sent a letter to the private prison company GEO Group asking it to disclose details of meetings and conversations Lewandowski had with the firm both before the transition period after President Donald Trump was elected in 2024 and during 2025.
Lewandowski denied allegations he sought payments in exchange for favorable contract decisions. GEO Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
GEO Group is the largest owner of detention centers in the United States, and the company plays a major role in Trump’s mass deportation of unauthorized immigrants. The firm holds more than a billion dollars’ worth of contracts with DHS.
“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. 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,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement.
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The NBC News investigation last week revealed that GEO Group and several other companies in government contracting have complained to officials in Trump’s inner circle that Lewandowski, as a special government employee, has directly or indirectly stood to personally profit from the DHS contracting process, according to four senior White House officials, a former White House official and a person familiar with the conversations.
When Trump won the election in 2024, GEO Group seemed well-positioned for a windfall of contracts and its stock price soared to a record high of $35.05 in the days before the inauguration. But when contracts did not materialize at the expected amount, its stock price fell to $16.43 as of mid-March. Two contracts shrank after it allegedly declined to pay Lewandowski a fee for new contracts, and sources say GEO Group believes it was a result of not agreeing to Lewandowski’s solicitations.
Lewandowski has been serving at DHS as a special government employee since January 2025. The DHS Office of General Counsel told NBC News that Lewandowski submitted a financial disclosure form to the agency but because of his status as a special government employee, it is not required to be publicly released.
One legal expert told NBC News that if a special government employee sought payment from a company in exchange for positive contract awards, it would raise “bright red flags of illegality.”
The effort by House Oversight Democrats is part of a series of new oversight efforts being taken by congressional Democrats and watchdogs in the wake of Noem’s firing.
The DHS inspector general is investigating the awarding of a $220 million advertising contract without full and open competition to two companies. One of those companies subcontracted work to a firm called The Strategy Group that worked with Noem when she was governor of South Dakota. The CEO of that firm is married to the former spokesperson for DHS, Tricia McLaughlin.
Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Peter Welch of Vermont revealed their initial findings about the $220 advertising contract Monday, alleging The Strategy Group received a $60,000 “signing bonus." The cost of Noem’s hair and makeup for the shoot was nearly $4,000 and for the horse rentals $20,000, according to the senators, citing invoices and a vendor sheet they received from The Strategy Group.
Republicans have raised questions as well. During Noem’s last congressional appearance, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., asked her why the size of the advertising contract was so large. “A quarter, a fifth to a quarter of a billion dollars in taxpayer money, when we’re scratching for every penny and we’re fighting over rescission packages, I just can’t agree with, Madam Secretary, you still running those ads,” he said.
Noem responded, “Senator, I did not have anything to do with picking those contractors. No politicals at the Department of Homeland Security did.”
