White House officials are investigating whether Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s de facto chief of staff, Corey Lewandowski, has undercounted his work hours in order to cling to his temporary government job.
As an unpaid special government employee, Lewandowski can work within the government without disclosing or relinquishing his other business interests, but he is only allowed by law to work 130 days per year.
The Department of Homeland Security claims he is still well below that threshold, having clocked just 69 days this year. But four administration sources told Axios they thought that was a gross undercount, and that Lewandowski had already exceeded the allowed time.
Two sources said Lewandowski sometimes enters government buildings with other employees to avoid swiping his own badge, and sometimes using his personal phone and email for official business in order to avoid leaving a paper trail on government systems.
The White House is aware of those efforts and has begun monitoring his work in recent weeks, according to Axios.
On July 3, the White House Counsel’s Office issued a government-wide memo reminding special government employees that they couldn’t exceed 30 days and providing guidance on how to calculate the number of days worked.
After the memo was sent, DHS counsel and members of the White House Counsel’s Office met to discuss the nature of Lewandowski’s work, sources told Axios.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Lewandowski, the White House and DHS for comment.
The long-time Trump adviser had wanted to come on as Noem’s official chief of staff, but Trump reportedly vetoed that idea over concerns that their relationship was a source of tabloid fodder.
For years, Noem, 53, and Lewandowski, 51—who are both married to other people—have been dogged by rumors that they’re romantically involved. They have repeatedly denied those claims but have continued to spend a lot of time together.
Since Noem became secretary, Lewandowski has rarely left her side and has amassed a staggering amount of power at DHS, often overruling Noem’s Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar.
According to multiple reports, he travels with her to meet with world leaders, participates in high-level policy meetings, advises Noem on personnel decisions, arranges contractor meetings and reviews contracts, and schedules the secretary’s meetings with DHS officials and lobbyists.
He can often be spotted in the background of Noem’s many photo ops, and has traveled with her to at least half a dozen countries in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East—not to mention several U.S. cities—since she was sworn in at the end of January.
Sources told CNN earlier this month that everything Lewandowski is doing at DHS is motivated by a desire to increase Noem’s profile.
The two were reportedly furious in July when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis iced Noem out of the official first look at the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detention center in Florida Everglades.
Instead of waiting until Noem was available to do a walk-through with Fox News, DeSantis gave Fox host Steve Doocy the first tour, causing Lewandowski to “lose his s—,” as once source put it to NBC News.
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