Corey Lewandowski is here to help. When Donald Trump returned to power, his former campaign manager raised his hand, volunteering as an unsalaried "special government employee," assisting Kristi Noem run the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Corey would have preferred a paid gig. But Trump nixed making him Noem's chief of staff because of that vile gossip that Corey and Kristi, while married to others, were, well, colleagues with benefits. So Lewandowski operated in the shadows. In fact, staff called him the "shadow Secretary."
Of course, volunteers have bills too. Salus Worldwide Solutions, which landed a nearly $1 billion DHS deportation contract, knew how to show its appreciation. A Salus rep reportedly told a marketing firm it could get a slice of the DHS work but only if it hired a consultant tied to Lewandowski. The rep explained it was to "properly thank" the man who'd secured the $1 billion deal.
Then there was the $220 million ad campaign, starring Ice Barbie herself. The no-bid deal sent $143 million to a company formed days earlier, which then paid the Strategy Group, a firm Lewandowski had worked with extensively. "Corey made out on that one," Trump reportedly mused.
Shadow Secretary Lewandowski ran a tight ship: Untrusted employees were polygraphed and mistakes were not tolerated. Like when Noem's blanket got left behind on a plane and Lewandowski sacked the Coast Guard pilot on the spot. (Corey reconsidered, however, when no one else could fly them home.)
But we already knew Corey could be a tad mercurial. Shortly after Trump took office in 2016, Lewandowski famously grabbed a pesky reporter but the charges were dropped. In 2021, he allegedly groped a GOP donor’s wife at a charity dinner and was charged with battery, again; this time he cut a deal with prosecutors.
Well, Noem has since been dispatched from DHS. And DOJ has opened a probe into Lewandowski’s contract dealings based on a criminal referral from DHS’s inspector general. But Corey’s totally copacetic: He reportedly told friends, no worries, Trump will pardon him.
