President Trump said aides who are not honest must be prosecuted and will “pay a price,” after reports the Justice Department is reviewing a DHS inspector general referral on Corey Lewandowski.
President Trump told reporters at the White House he wants people in his administration to be honest, and that anyone who is not should face prosecution, after news outlets reported the Justice Department is reviewing a criminal referral from the Department of Homeland Security inspector general involving former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
The New York Post reported Trump’s remarks came as CNN and the Wall Street Journal said Thursday afternoon that the DOJ is reviewing that referral. Lewandowski had served as a de facto chief of staff figure at DHS and was swept out after Trump fired then-Secretary Kristi Noem in March.
Trump said he had heard something about the matter but did not know the details. He framed the standard in plain terms: honesty first, and consequences if that standard is broken.
"I heard something about it, but I don’t know exactly what it is. All I know is I want my people to be honest, and if they’re not going to be honest, they have to be prosecuted."
He tied dishonesty to theft from the presidency and from the country, and said he would not block a prosecution in those cases.
Trump repeated that he wants administration officials to be “100% honest.” He said he had “no idea what he did” regarding Lewandowski specifically, and that honesty would be good, while dishonesty would carry a cost.
"If he’s honest, that’s good. If he’s not honest, you have to pay a price."
He also said that if people are not honest, “they’re stealing from me as president,” and that he would have “my DOJ go and do whatever they have to do.” In another line to reporters, he said someone dishonest is “not only against the country” but “dishonest against me,” and that he “will never do anything to stop a prosecution if somebody is dishonest.”
That message puts process and accountability ahead of personalities. No charges, indictment, or arrest were described as completed in the reporting; the public record at this stage is a reported DOJ review of an inspector general referral, plus Trump’s public standard for how his Justice Department should treat dishonesty.
Lewandowski’s lawyer, Adam Trigg, issued a statement Thursday. He said Lewandowski had not been contacted by the Justice Department about any investigation and denied wrongdoing during what he called voluntary service to the country.
"Mr. Lewandowski has not been contacted by the Justice Department regarding any investigation, and he denies any wrongdoing when he was proudly serving his country in a voluntary capacity."
Separate reporting has described allegations of misconduct around Lewandowski’s role in DHS contracting as swirling in Washington for more than a year, including reported instances involving alleged solicitations to foreign officials and Geo Group, which operates private prisons. Those remain allegations in the coverage; the inspector general referral’s specific conduct was not laid out as a public charging document in the available reporting.
A Post source was also cited attributing a crude line to Lewandowski, that he was “not worried,” did “whatever the f*** I want,” and that “DJT will pardon me.” That claim sits as attributed color in the coverage, not as a verified admission in a charging paper. Lewandowski has denied wrongdoing.
Trump fired Kristi Noem as DHS secretary in March. Lewandowski was swept out of the department after that move. Noem had claimed in congressional testimony that Trump approved $220 million in ads starring herself, and she struggled in that setting when asked whether she and Lewandowski were having an affair.
Broader accounts of the Noem tenure have described deep internal dysfunction, lost support inside the department, and heavy reliance on Lewandowski as an unconfirmed special government employee figure, chaos that left her politically exposed long before the latest DOJ review reports. National Review noted she had lost allegiance from top to bottom, and that Lewandowski would not be able to save her from that collapse of confidence.
Readers tracking Noem’s path after DHS have also seen her exit from a Shield of the Americas envoy role confirmed by the State Department, another marker in a turbulent stretch that began with the March firing and the contracting questions around the department.
Personal and political ties between the two have stayed in the public eye as well, including when Noem and Lewandowski were spotted together at a Minnesota lake after her divorce announcement, the kind of pairing that keeps the old DHS orbit in the news even after both left their formal roles.
CNN and the Wall Street Journal’s Thursday afternoon reports put the DOJ in a review posture on a criminal referral from the DHS inspector general. Trump’s White House comments did not fill in the referral’s factual allegations. He said he did not know exactly what the matter was and had no idea what Lewandowski did.
That gap matters for readers. A referral under review is not the same as charges filed. A lawyer’s denial of contact and of wrongdoing is not the same as a closed case. Trump’s line was institutional: honesty is required; dishonesty should meet prosecution, not protection.
Lewandowski’s later political maneuvering has kept his name tied to Trump-world comeback talk and to Noem’s future, including coverage of how he angled for a comeback while floating a Noem primary challenge against John Thune, another reminder that personnel drama from the DHS period did not end when the badges came off.
For now, the verified public pieces are limited and clear: a reported inspector general referral under DOJ review; Trump’s demand that his people be honest; his pledge not to stop a prosecution over dishonesty; Lewandowski’s lawyer saying there has been no DOJ contact and denying wrongdoing; and a year-plus trail of contracting allegations that have not, in this reporting, produced a completed charging outcome.
Taxpayers and lawful residents deserve homeland security leadership that can survive an inspector general paper trail without drama. If the facts show honesty, that ends the cloud. If they show otherwise, the prosecution standard Trump described is the one the country is owed.