Some DHS contractors told White House officials they were asked to pay Corey Lewandowski

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News

March 19, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT


More than a year ago, The GEO Group founder George Zoley asked for a meeting with Corey Lewandowski, a close ally of President Donald Trump who had just started a powerful position as a top adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. As a titan of the private prison industry, GEO Group stood to benefit from Trump’s mass deportation agenda, which would require the federal government to spend tens of billions of dollars to transport, detain, monitor and deport undocumented immigrants.

The company’s federal contracts in those areas already totaled more than $1 billion per year. But Zoley and his advisers were worried that the road to securing new government contracts now ran through Lewandowski. The two had history: Lewandowski and Zoley had butted heads during the transition between Trump’s November 2024 election and his January 2025 inauguration, before Lewandowski officially worked for the government, according to two industry sources and one senior DHS official familiar with the matter.

During the transition, Lewandowski told Zoley that he wanted to be paid in exchange for protecting and growing GEO Group’s DHS contracts, according to a senior DHS official and three people familiar with their discussion. Zoley, concerned about the propriety of the ask, told Lewandowski he would have no part of it, the sources said, describing the confrontation as tense.

Lewandowski took a role as an unpaid “special government employee” at DHS once the new administration was sworn in, where he advised and acted as a “de facto chief of staff” to Noem and, sources said, influenced contract awards. Zoley scrambled to find a way to assuage tensions from the meeting during the transition, two industry sources familiar with the matter said. He secured a follow-up with Lewandowski in late February or early March 2025.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dhs-contractors-told-white-house-officials-asked-pay-corey-lewandowski-rcna263744

[UpInArms]

1. Grift grift grift

“Unpaid” my ass …

Piling the bucks into his gritty pockets, lewandowski is a slimy thing

[Attilatheblond]

8. Being an 'unpaid' advisor with a full gate pass means

never having to pay taxes?

If the IRS had any teeth or guts, these grifters would be in jail.

[Lovie777]

2. Corporate media cannot be surprised that within this current administration...............

under the table payment is being made.

[tanyev]

3. Donny's minions are not allowed to line their own pockets without it going through Donny first.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. The real source of deficits reveals itself

I keep wondering ... They DOGEd government ... fired hundreds of thousands of workers ... tariff revenue is hundreds of billions if not Trump's $1.2 Trillion estimate ... where's the money? Where did it go?

OH! My bad. It never made it to government coffers because it was paid to private entities. How slow am I?

[ColoringFool]

10. I Was Mocked Here For Suggesting That Maybe The Tariff $$ Went Astray....

Because the LAW---😆😆😆😆😆😆---said the tariff monies had to go into the government coffers.

I even got a sarcastic "WOW."

[no_hypocrisy]

5. TSF gets the $, nobody else.

[mopinko]

6. "special government employee" aka

bagman.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. This idiot is counting on a trump pardon

Link to tweet

[BattleRow]

11. Wonder how much he will have to fork over for HIS pardon?

[FakeNoose]

9. Didn't Jared Kushner do the same thing for 4 years?

For all we know he's probably doing it right now.

[BattleRow]

12. Leopards don't change their spots..Especially the face eating variety.

I recently read interesting background on Jared's dad..the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Same with Ghislaine Maxwell and her dad,Robert Maxwell.

Evidently,a family tradition.

[Buddyzbuddy]

13. Oh Lordy there's gonna be some heeearings.

In 1 year.