Corey Lewandowski, a former adviser to President Trump, on Tuesday forcefully denied a Wall Street Journal report that alleged he wielded control over billions of dollars in Department of Homeland Security contracts, dismissing the story as “politically driven” and “fiction.”
The Journal reported that Lewandowski, while serving as a “special government employee” at DHS, pitched government services to officials from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, including help with visa issues under the department’s purview. The report, citing unnamed sources, said some foreign officials were taken aback by the offers and declined.
In a statement to the Journal, a representative for Lewandowski said he “adamantly denies ever demanding any payment or compensation from any potential, former, or current government contractor or seeking contracts with foreign governments while volunteering his time with DHS.”
Lewandowski took to social media to lambast the outlet, writing on X: “This latest Wall Street Journal story, a once great publication, is today just another example of the kind of anonymous-source, politically driven reporting that Americans have seen time and again.” He added that he was “tremendously proud of” his “work as a volunteer in advancing this administration’s agenda.”
In a separate post, he invoked the upcoming 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, saying, “On the week of the 25th Anniversary of 9/11 you would think the WSJ would be more interested in how our homeland has become secure as opposed to the innuendo fake news story they published today.”
The Journal’s reporting also detailed Lewandowski’s role in advising then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, with whom he had a personal relationship, and his authority to decide how to allocate “large amounts of recently appropriated billions of dollars.” Noem was later ousted amid allegations of excessive spending.
House Democrats have already called for an investigation into Lewandowski’s conduct, citing a separate Journal article that claimed he pushed Noem to replace long-standing DHS contracts with newer agreements, which complicated the application process for grant seekers. Lawmakers urged DHS to rescind a $100,000 approval policy and revert to a lower threshold, citing “the clear risk of mismanagement, confusion, and self-dealing.”
Last month, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) pressed DHS for interim findings and records from its internal investigation into Lewandowski. In a letter to DHS Under Secretary for Management Brian Cavanaugh, Hassan wrote: “The allegations against Mr. Lewandowski, if true, indicate significant corruption, abuse of taxpayer funds, and flagrant conflicts of interest that require Congressional investigation based on a comprehensive record of his tenure at DHS.”
The controversy adds to a series of clashes over 9/11-related narratives and internal GOP tensions that have marked the administration’s recent weeks.
