Democrats vow to investigate “web of corruption” at DHS

Democrats on Wednesday denounced a massive contract that the Homeland Security Department handed to a company owned by a financial supporter of former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem as an example of what they called rampant corruption under President Donald Trump.

DHS last May awarded Salus Worldwide Solutions a contract worth up $915 million to provide flights out of the country for undocumented immigrants under a self-deportation program set up by the Trump administration. As Mother Jones has reported, Salus had limited prior federal contracting experience but won the business following extensive contacts with top department officials. A DHS contracting officer acknowledged the situation created “an appearance of favoritism,” according to a court document. Salus is owned by a former State Department official who in October 2024 gave $10,000 to a political action committee that supports Noem.

“The web of corruption here will take us some time to fully unpack,” Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.) said Wednesday at an unofficial hearing held by House Homeland Security Committee Democrats.

Magaziner and other Democrats also pointed to a $220 million ad campaign Noem launched last year. The ads, crafted in part by firms with close ties to the former secretary and to her adviser Corey Lewandowski, were nominally aimed at urging immigrants to self-deport. But they also appeared intended to promote Noem herself, complete with a now infamous spot featuring the former secretary on a horse. CNN recently reported that the department paid $20,000 to rent the horse for Noem. The DHS inspector general has reportedly launched an investigation into that ad campaign.

Additionally, lawmakers cited an NBC News report alleging that Lewandowksi requested that companies seeking DHS contracts pay him, or hire people associated with him. A Lewandowski representative has called those accusations “absolutely false.”

The so-called shadow hearing Wednesday was part of a broad effort by congressional Democrats to trumpet plans to commence aggressive oversight of DHS and federal contractors should they take control of one or both congressional chambers next year—and regain the subpoena power that Republicans are largely unwilling to use to scrutinize the Trump administration.

“We want to assure the public that at some point there will have to be a reckoning for a lot of the contracts and other things that we question,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the committee’s ranking member, said Wednesday. “We plan to put as many people on notice as possible that the committee in due time will look at it.”

Noem’s rocky tenure at DHS is ending this week with the confirmation of former Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) to lead the department. But Democratic lawmakers have said they still plan to scrutinize Noem’s role in federal contracts as well as that of Lewandowski, who is expected to give up his role as special government employee.

One Wednesday, Sens. Adam Schiff (Calif.), Peter Welch (Vt.), and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, asked federal contractors including Salus to preserve communications with Lewandowski and with people and firms working with him.

Elsewhere in Congress, House Judiciary Committee Democrats unsuccessfully urged that panel’s chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), to subpoena Lewandowski over this role in DHS contracting. House Oversight Committee Democrats have launched their own investigation into the former Trump campaign aide.

Democrats have denounced what they call the unprecedented corruption unleashed by the president and his family, whose personal wealth has skyrocketed since Trump retook office. In previously unimaginable ways, the Trumps have accepted money from people hoping to influence federal policy, including secretive investments by foreign interests in Trump family companies.

The contracting scandals involving DHS, by contrast, involve allegations of fairly traditional graft that would have been understandable to “boss” William Tweed of Tammany Hall. NBC News’ report last week included an allegation that an official at a firm seeking a subcontract under Salus Worldwide was pressured by someone at that company to hire “one of several consulting firms tied to Lewandowski.”

“I’m not a lawyer, but this sounds illegal to me,” Magaziner said Wednesday.

Lewandowski denied this claim, and an attorney for Salus told NBC that the account was “entirely false” and that the company “would never entertain this type of arrangement.” Mother Jones has not independently confirmed these allegations.

Mother Jones and the Project on Government Oversight, or POGO, have reported that Salus Worldwide won its $915 million contract with DHS after extensive contacts between the company and DHS officials. A contracting officer at DHS, according to a court document, found that Salus “appeared” to shape the government’s requirements for the contract that the firm was trying to win. The court filing by DHS disclosed that the same officer found that DHS officials had “shared high-level budget and task information with Salus that was not available to the public,” contributing to “an appearance of favoritism toward Salus.”

But the agency waived restrictions meant to prevent conflicts of interest and the appearance of impropriety, citing factors including the contract’s supposed urgency and “national security considerations.” And after a limited two-day competition, Salus received the massive contract.

Mother Jones and POGO have also reported that Salus’ owner, William Walters— who donated $10,000 to a political action committee backing Noem in 2024—is closely linked to other firms that are selling airplanes to DHS, including a luxury 737 with private bedrooms that was reputedly used by Lewandowski and Noem.

At Wednesday’s shadow hearing, Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the director of government affairs at POGO, argued that problems with large contracts on the scale of the one held by Salus can occur via subcontracts that firms give to other companies. Those subcontracts are subject to laxer regulation and fewer disclosure requirements than the primary contractors, he said.

Hedtler-Gaudette said there are indications Salus is awarding subcontract work to firms connected to Salus itself. “We are seeing potentially what looks like a shell game of a company and then a number of smaller companies that are linked to that company in some way,” he said.

Committee members said they would come back to the issue. “We’ll go forward in due time holding this administration accountable for this egregious waste of taxpayers’ money,” Thompson said.