Courts & Corrections

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U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-NH, is pictured at a Congressional hearing last April.

Editor’s note: The following is a press release issued Friday afternoon by U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-NH. Attempts to reach Corey Lewandowski for comment were unsuccessful.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH), a senior member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is launching an investigation into claims that former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official Corey Lewandowski leveraged his role to request personal payments from government contractors and participated in other serious misconduct. Senator Hassan has asked for all records, including those from personal devices, tied to the allegations she described and reminded Lewandowski of his duty to preserve records from his time at DHS.

“Reports that you demanded personal financial compensation from government contractors in exchange for favorable contract decisions, if true, indicate significant corruption and abuse of taxpayer dollars,” Senator Hassan wrote to Mr. Lewandowski. “Additional contracts under your watch underscore your flagrant conflicts of interest, especially given your former roles as a political consultant and campaign operative for then-Governor Noem, as well as President Trump.”

According to recent reporting, Mr. Lewandowski allegedly requested payment from the head of GEO Group, a major private prison company that operates detention facilities for DHS, in return for safeguarding and growing the company’s DHS contracts. The letter also references reports that a marketing firm was invited by the company Salus Worldwide to participate in a $20 million DHS contract only if the firm hired Mr. Lewandowski’s chosen consultants to oversee the work. In May 2025, Salus Worldwide secured a fast-tracked DHS contract to support the Trump Administration’s self-deportation program.

Senator Hassan further highlighted concerns that Mr. Lewandowski steered contracts toward close political allies and noted reports of his abusive conduct and misconduct at DHS unrelated to contracting. Those claims include reports that Mr. Lewandowski pursued a law enforcement badge and government-issued firearm without completing required federal training, retaliated against an official who refused to issue the firearm, and dismissed or tried to dismiss federal employees over minor matters such as leaving Secretary Noem’s blanket on a plane.

In March, Senators Hassan and Peters urged DHS to verify its compliance with federal law and retain all government records from Mr. Lewandowski and outgoing Secretary Kristi Noem.

The full text of Senator Hassan’s letter to Corey Lewandowski follows.

Dear Mr. Lewandowski:

I write to express my deep concern over your alleged actions at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and to direct you to preserve all records that may be relevant to ongoing and future Congressional investigations. Reports that you demanded personal financial compensation from government contractors in exchange for favorable contract decisions, if true, indicate significant corruption and abuse of taxpayer dollars. Allegations that you attempted to fire military service members and law enforcement professionals for trivial reasons - in one case allegedly firing a U.S. Coast Guard pilot over a misplaced blanket - also raise serious questions about your leadership, judgement, and fitness to serve in a sensitive national security role.

Reports suggest that you made DHS contracting decisions in order to reap personal financial gain. According to a recent report from NBC News, for example, during the presidential transition you solicited the head of GEO Group, a private prison contractor, for payment in exchange for protecting and growing GEO Group’s DHS contracts. The firm allegedly offered to put you on retainer, but you reportedly rejected that offer and asked for compensation based on new or renewed contracts. After GEO Group declined this arrangement, you reportedly ordered that DHS award no further contracts to GEO Group. In another example, the company Salus Worldwide allegedly invited a marketing firm to work on a $20 million DHS contract, but only if this firm also hired your handpicked consultants to manage the contract. A Salus Worldwide representative allegedly told the owner of the marketing firm that “[w]e need to make sure we are properly thanking the person who gave [the contract] to us.” In May 2025 Salus Worldwide won a fast-tracked DHS contract worth nearly $1 billion to help administer the Trump Administration’s self-deportation efforts despite a lack of relevant experience. Notably, according to NBC News, “GEO Group and several other companies in government contracting have complained to officials in Trump’s inner circle that Lewandowski…has directly or indirectly stood to personally profit from the DHS contracting process.”

Your central role in DHS contracting also allegedly benefited your close allies. For example, on September 30, 2025, DHS awarded a $250,000 contract for public affairs consulting to American Made Media Company, LLC, a political firm owned and operated by your former professional associates, but with no prior experience in homeland security policy. The application for this contract - which was only open for 31 hours - specified the need for “in-depth knowledge of… the agenda and goals of the current Secretary of Homeland Security,” with preference given to applicants who “served in a cabinet agency during the first Trump presidency.” This language appears to steer the contract towards specific applicants based on proximity to you and then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. The document is noticeably silent on prior border security, immigration, or international affairs experience, even though the first deliverable is “[w]ritten position papers addressing international policy challenges and opportunities.”

Additional contracts under your watch underscore your flagrant conflicts of interest, especially given your former roles as a political consultant and campaign operative for then-Governor Noem, as well as President Trump. For example, DHS spent $220 million on an ad campaign that featured Secretary Noem riding a horse in front of Mount Rushmore, which was reportedly subcontracted, in part, to a former political consultant for Secretary Noem. DHS also awarded a large contract to Daedalus Aviation - a company owned by a major campaign donor to Secretary Noem and President Trump - despite the company lacking relevant experience. The $140 million contract to Daedalus Aviation to overhaul passenger planes for deportation flights led one aviation executive to say that “it is hard to see this as anything but a waste of public money.”

As de facto Chief of Staff of the Department, you reportedly reviewed all contracts worth more than $100,000 prior to approval by the Secretary. This policy, which was new during your tenure and has since been revoked, appears to have delayed crucial contracts, including for the deployment of search and rescue teams after deadly floods in Texas in July 2025, analysis of possible cyberattacks, and screening equipment to detect fake passports at airports. “Corey is part of the problem,” said one administration official. “It doesn’t matter how quickly we get it there, it doesn’t just go straight to [Noem’s] desk.” A former senior acquisition official at the Department said, “I think most, if not all sane and knowledgeable people would consider this policy absolutely nuts.”

You also face numerous allegations of abusive behavior and misconduct unrelated to contracting. According to press reports, you sought a law enforcement badge and a federally issued gun, despite your lack of federal law enforcement training. An official who declined to provide you with a weapon was subsequently passed over for a promotion. In another incident, you allegedly “fired a U.S. Coast Guard pilot after Secretary Noem’s blanket was left behind on a plane.” The pilot was told to take a commercial flight home and then rehired when no other pilots were available to fly the DHS aircraft. Similarly, during a tour of an immigration facility in March 2025, you allegedly “pushed to fire the official leading the tour, because that official had briefly turned his back on Noem while answering a question from another person in the group,” according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Congress has a responsibility to investigate these allegations, which requires a comprehensive record of your tenure at DHS. However, according to administration sources cited in recent reporting by Axios, “[Lewandowski] doesn’t always use his government email or phone number for official business, avoiding digital paper trails on government systems.” Importantly, you also worked at DHS as a part-time “special government employee,” a status normally reserved for technical experts and short-term consultants. Federal records retention policies do not envision special government employees serving as high-level officials, who are subject to more stringent record keeping requirements, which raises the possibility that DHS did not retain your records in a manner consistent with your high-level role. Complicating this issue, although you were closely involved in the transition process at DHS after President Trump was elected in 2024, reporting from the time indicated that it was “not clear if Lewandowski has an official role yet in the transition or is helping in a personal capacity… He’s not on the DHS landing team.” This uncertainty raises the possibility that records from the transition period that covered matters of legitimate interest to Congress have not been retained in accordance with records management requirements for transition officials.

Given the significant allegations of corruption, misuse of taxpayer dollars, and other concerns outlined above, further Congressional investigation, including by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is necessary. Please provide the following documents, including but not limited to any documents on your personal electronic devices, and answer the following questions no later than June 26, 2026:

Please provide all documents and communications, including but not limited to e-mail, text messages, and Signal communications or other encrypted messaging apps, between you and officers and executives of Salus Worldwide and GEO Group, including but not limited to their affiliates and subsidiaries, since November 6, 2024;
Please provide all documents that evidence any direct or indirect payment from Salus Worldwide and GEO Group, including but not limited to its officers, executives, employees, affiliates, and subsidiaries, to you, including but not limited to any entity of which you are or have been a trustee, officer, beneficial owner, or employee, since November 6, 2024;
Please provide all documents sufficient to show all invoices to Salus Worldwide and GEO Group, including but not limited to its officers, executives, employees, affiliates, and subsidiaries, from you, including but not limited to entities of which you are or were a trustee, officer, beneficial owner, or employee, since November 6, 2024;
Please provide all documents and communications, including but not limited to e-mail, text messages, and Signal communications or other encrypted messaging apps, between you and procurement, acquisition, contracting, or ethics officials at DHS or its components regarding upcoming contracts, solicitations, contract extensions, other transactions, or other business opportunities since January 21, 2025;
Please provide all documents and communications concerning the decision to implement the $100,000 contract approval requirement that Secretary Noem initiated;