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Here's the Scoop
Attacks on World’s Largest Gas Field Escalate War; Exclusive NBC News Investigation into Corey Lewandowski
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- [00:03]
A
Hey, everybody, and welcome to here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Vesugian. Coming up on the show today, NBC's investigative reporting has revealed allegations that Corey Lewandowski, Kristi Noem's right hand man at the Department of Homeland Security, stood to personally profit off of the agency's contracting process. We have got the exclusive details after months of reporting. And if you are in the market for a move, you might want to check out the World Happiness Report. Up first, though, we're going to go to the escalating war in the Middle East. So early this morning, Israel launched a major attack on the world's largest gas field, South Parse, which is in the Persian Gulf and is split between Iran and Qatar. Iran then retaliated with strikes against other key energy sites across the Gulf Arab states. Iran's neighbors, of course, are now in an uproar. And economists are warning that the situation could trigger global price shocks and add to energy shortages for billions of people already facing disruptions caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. So I want to bring in chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel, who is in Tel Aviv for us.
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B
Hey, Richard, great to be with you. How are you?
- [01:13]
A
I'm good. It's great to have you. We are seeing a dramatic, I would say, escalation in this war between the United States, Israel and Iran. For those that do not know what is South Pars.
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B
So these gas fields are enormous. And the one that the Pars facility extracts from is under the Persian Gulf. It is the largest known reserve of natural gas on the planet. And Qatar, which is on the opposite side of the Persian Gulf, also extracts gas from this underground subterranean bubble, if you will. So the Iranian side facility was hit by Israel and then the Iranians responded by attacking the Qatari side from the same reservoir of gas. And Iran didn't just hit the Qatari side, they also hit other oil refineries. Because when Saudi Arabia and other countries then we're talking about oil, oil products. And the Qataris are very upset about all of this and are angry with Israel, angry with the United States, angry with Iran, angry with everybody. They're like, cool this down. This is bad for everyone.
- [02:35]
A
So when we talk about the president's response, in a true social post, President Trump characterized this initial attack on South Pars as Israel, quote, unquote, lashing out at Iran. And he said that the United States knew nothing about it. American and Israeli officials told Axios, though, that the president in fact greenlit that attack and by the way, the White House has not responded to our request for comment. What do you make of the United States trying to distance themselves from this attack? Because I know you have some reporting on this as well.
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B
Well, this is President Trump trying to distance himself from this, saying, I didn't know anything about it. We didn't know anything about it. This was all Israel, and Israel's never going to do it again. But if Iran goes after Qatar's side of this reservoir, that, that, that, that's going to be terrible consequences and he's going to blow it all up. The reporting I have is a confirmation of what Axios was reporting. That Axios said that the US Was aware that Israel was going to do this, coordinated and approved it. And I have a very senior Arab official who's involved very closely in this, in this conflict, who confirmed that report, says that the US Was aware. The president says, we didn't know anything about it, but you have to go back even a couple of steps. So how did this war become a war about oil? Didn't start that way.
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A
No.
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B
If you remember, the night it was launched was about nuclear. The nuclear threat.
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A
Yeah.
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B
There wasn't talk about oil. Iran was supposed to be developing a nuclear weapon. It's going to have one in weeks. There was no scientific evidence presented that was even possible. So there was an imminent threat. According to President Trump, it was only after it escalated and escalated and Iran started attacking oil facilities that it became a conflict about oil. Supposed to be about the imminent nuclear threats.
- [04:40]
A
You know, Iran is going after its neighbors. The President had said at one point they were no longer going to go after their neighbors. They were going after U.S. interests in that region. But they're going after now sites in Qatar and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as well. A lot of folks in the international community are looking at oil prices right now. Right. If they're not looking at what's happening with the war, when it comes to humanitarian issues, they're looking at oil prices. Brent crude spiked up to $119 a barrel right after the attacks. Natural gas prices went up as well. If these attacks on energy infrastructure continue, if the Strait of Hormuz essentially remains closed, is there a potential for this to become a wider regional war for other allies of the United States to get involved? Because so far, they put their hands up and said, this was not our war. We didn't start this thing. We're not getting involved.
- [05:38]
B
Of course there's a potential. Of course there's a potential. Once you start a fire, a Forest fire, you don't know where it's going to spread. World War II, it started with a minor conflict, Sudetenland. You know, we're talking a little conflict that escalated and escalated and escalated and grew and grew until it became a global conflagration. Even in Iraq, you know, we fought there for years and years. Then what happened? The embers spread and you get, you know, get fires all, all across the region. Iraq right now is already deteriorating badly because Shia militias there that are sympathetic to Iran and are deeply ingrained into the security services and into the government are mobilizing. So, yes, there is very much a risk that if you don't contain this fire and do it quickly, it's going to spread and spread to places you hadn't necessarily anticipated.
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And just today, American allies, including the uk, France, Germany, are saying they are, quote, unquote, ready to support appropriate efforts to restart shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. What those appropriate efforts are, we don't necessarily know. It was a joint statement signed by leaders of Italy, the Netherlands, Japan as well, and said they would also, quote, unquote, take steps to stabilize energy markets, including working with certain producing nations to increase output. But nowhere in that do they say they're ready to take military action because it's very unpopular.
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B
It was very difficult for these governments to sell to their people. There's a lot of sentiment in Europe that this is unnecessary, that this is dangerous. And these choke points on the planet. There was a war over the Suez Canal. People don't talk about that as much. These choke points have always triggered conflicts that have the potential to widen very quickly because they impact everyone.
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A
Richard Engel, thank you.
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Thank you.
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And a bit of good news for the region. Afghanistan and Pakistan have also been at war, but the two countries have said they are taking a break from fighting for a few days for aid, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
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That's something.
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We're gonna take a very quick break. And when we are back, an exclusive NBC News investigation reveals a top official at the Department of Homeland Security allegedly stood to personally profit from the agency's contracting process. That's in a minute. And while you're patiently waiting for us to return from break, why not subscribe to the show? That way you will never miss an episode of. Here's the scoop from NBC News. We'll see you in a minute. With VRBL's last minute deals, you can save over $50 on your spring getaway. So whether it's a mountain escape with friends, a family week at the beach or sightseeing in a new city. There's still time to get great discounts. Book your next day now. $72 select homes only.
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D
Hey everyone, it's me, Morgan Stewart. And I have a new podcast called the Morgan Stewart Show. Join me each week as I talk about pop culture, fashion, my personal life and just a warning, I'm going to be giving my opinion on everything. I'll also have some really fun guests to join in on the fun. The Morgan Stewart show is out now. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts or watch full video on YouTube.
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A
And we are back with here's the scoop from NBC News. Okay, we have got some exclusive reporting for you on allegations involving Corey Lewandowski, who is a close ally of President Trump and a top advisor to former Homeland Security Secretary Christine O. According to a seven month long NBC investigation, companies complained to the Trump administration that Lewandowski stood to personally profit from the DHS contracting process while he worked under Kristi Noem. Lewandowski denies these allegations. This new reporting is coming just two weeks after President Trump removed Noem from her position, tapping Senator Mark Wayne Mullen to replace her. And as the agency is still in the throes of a partial government shutdown due to Democratic lawmakers concerns about DHS's handling of immigration enforcement. So for this, I want to bring in NBC News senior Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainslie, who broke this story for us. Hey, Julia.
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C
Hey. Thanks for having me.
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A
It's great to have you. I want to get into the nitty gritty of it all the details. I think first, though, we need to start with Corey Lewandowski. As we all know, he is a key ally to the president, top aide to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, unpaid, as he likes to remind folks repeatedly explain who he is, what his role has been until now and how you came upon this investigation, how you launched it.
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C
Well, yeah. Corey Lewandowski first came to be known by a lot of Americans for his role in Trump's first campaign, the 2016 campaign, and was ultimately not brought into the first Trump administration. And then he reemerged in the second term as a close ally of Kristi Noem. He ended up becoming a her senior advisor as a special government employee. He's not paid, but he was essentially telling people, I'm going to have influence over this process. And there were some red flags that went off to incoming ICE officials. And remember, people thought if they were involved in ICE detention in any way, their stocks were already soaring because of the promises of mass deportation. So there was a lot of money to be won here. And as we understand from our sources and multiple months of reporting and people we've spoken to, both in the industry and inside dhs, Lewandowski started basically selling that influence with Kristi Noem as early as the transition, saying at least to one company, Geo Group, really the titan of immigration detention, that if they wanted contracts with dhs, they needed to go through him. We understand in that first meeting during the transition, they rebuffed him.
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A
So when you say in the first meeting they rebuffed him, the jail group, that is. That was before he had taken any job inside the government, whether it's unpaid or paid. Right. What are your sources telling you?
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C
He was still in the transition at that point. And they said no. Then Corey Lewdowski comes into the government. He is her senior adviser. It's very clear he has a lot of influence. And Geo Group is seeing that they're not getting the windfall that they thought that they would. In fact, a lot of their detention centers are still sitting idle to this day. And at the time, we believe this meeting was about late February, early March of last year. The CEO of GeoGroup, George Zoli, went back to Coreliv and Lewandowski and said, look, what can we do here? We've got to get these contracts moving, and offered to hire him on a retainer that's like a monthly consulting fee. To which Corey Levadowski said, no, he wanted more. He wanted a direct payment that would be appropriate or at least proportioned to the contracts he was going to be getting them.
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These are hundreds of millions of dollars that are up for grabs here.
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C
So if you're going to get like, say 10% of every contract or even 1% of every contract, that's a lot of money. So we've talked to government contracting experts about this. There are multiple protections set up within the system to see that this can't be done. So that government employees are not allowed to profit off of the contracts that they award and really aren't allowed to have any kind of influence in it at all. In this interaction, we were told that it's what some people would call a success fee, that if he was able to be successful in getting contracts for Geo Group, he wanted a payment as a result. Old and to that, George Zoli said no. And a lot of officials within Geo Group believe that that is a result of the retaliation of Corey Lewandowski because George Zoli, their CEO, refused to pay Lewandowski this money.
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A
You say that there was other companies as well. And I know that there was a marketing firm that you highlighted in your reporting what allegedly happened with them. And how did these companies say that they had tried to communicate what was actually taking place between themselves and Lewandowski to the White House.
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C
So this one is so interesting because we were able to really get into the dialogue that happened here in this case. We're told that there was a marketing firm owner that was approached by a group called Salus Group. Now, that group, Salus, has already been awarded a $1 billion contract from DHS for something called Project Homecoming. What Salus did is they reached out to a marketing firm that had never had any previous federal contracts and said, would you be interested in a $20 million contract? And this firm said, well, yeah, I mean, our ears are up. And they walked them through how they would be doing branding and marketing for a agency that falls under dhs. And they said, well, sure, we're interested. Then they get a follow up call from a Salus representative. And the representative said in this one on one dialogue, in their words, they said, the only thing here is you're going to have to hire a consultant, a firm of consultants as a part of this. And they said, to do what? And they said to manage the relationship. And they said, what relationship? And this was what we understand from our sources that a Salus representative said to the owner of the marketing firm is that we are secured this contract, but we need to be thanking the person who gave it to us. And they said that person was Corey Lewandowski. In other words, we've got this contract in the bag, but some of this money needs to go to a consultancy firm that is going to ultimately, indirectly give the money back to Corey Lewandowski. Now, Corey Lewandowski has denied all of this. Salas has denied this. Corey Lewandowski and Salas say that they don't have a relationship, although individually. The head of Salas has told me he has met with Corey Lewandowski. Corey Lewandowski has told me he's met with the head of Salas. But one said one time, one said two times, so maybe not many times. Either way, we do believe that this did ultimately reach the White House. Now, the Salas interaction may not have reached the White House, but we do know that the GO interaction did. And that one senior White House official said that they had received dozens of complaints from companies about Lewandowski's role in the contracting process. We also understand that at least in one interaction it reached the President's ears. It was an unrelated meeting that ultimately got cut short. But someone brought up the issue of whether or not Lewandowski was getting payment in exchange for the contracts that he had all of this power over. That did get to the President's ears. And we also understand from another senior White House official who's told us we are aware of the allegations of pay to play. What action they're going to take about them remains to be seen. And Lewandowski told me on the phone he believes that the President still has full confidence in him and that if he had a problem with any of this or with anything he's done, he would have raised it to him. And again, Lewandowski, denying that he's ever solicited payment, said to me he's never taken one penny from a contractor.
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A
You mentioned the responses from Lewandowski and dhs. What is the White House saying about this?
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Absolutely nothing. They even told us that they are declining to comment.
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A
I want to talk about Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, who is slated to take over for Kristi Noem. The Senate Homeland Security Committee just voted to advance his nomination to the full Senate. In this very kind of heated confirmation hearing on Wednesday, he was asked if he would cooperate with a Democratic led investigation into the $220 million advertising contract featuring Gnome, one of the reasons that contributed to her own firing. And he said he would cooperate with any DHS inspector general investigation. What do we know with that about Lewandowski's future at the dhs, especially in light of your reporting?
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C
Well, that's exactly the question we're asking today is what will the Inspector general do with this? What Mullen was responding to, it sounded like to me, was the possibility of an investigation that was not yet confirmed or at least one that Mullen simply doesn't know about yet because he's not yet in the job saying he will cooperate with them. And what the Democrats on House Homeland have asked the IG to look into is again, about that $220 million ad campaign didn't tie Corey Lewandowski to it financially. These allegations get into a different sphere. And so we've got questions now to the ig, to people on the Hill, to the White House, about what they might do with the allegations that Corey Lewandowski has been personally enriching himself off of the contracts that he's been overseeing.
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A
Julie Ainslie, thank you.
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C
Thank you so much.
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A
And to be clear, we do not know whether Corey Lewandowski actually received any money from businesses contract with the government. He has denied it. We are going to take a very quick break. And when we are back, another fiery hearing for the nation's top intelligence officials. That's next in the headlines.
- [19:11]
D
Hey everyone, it's me, Morgan Stewart, and I have a new podcast called the Morgan Stewart Show. Join me each week as I talk about pop culture, fashion, my personal life and just a warning, I'm gonna be giving my opinion on everything. I'll also have some really fun guests to join in on the fun the Morgan Stewart show is out now. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts or watch full video on YouTube.
- [19:31]
B
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A
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- [19:35]
B
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C
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- [19:37]
B
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A
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- [19:40]
B
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- [19:46]
A
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B
Oil prices will go up. The economy will go down a little bit. I thought it would be worse. Much worse, actually. I thought there was a chance it could be much worse. It's not bad and it's going to be over with pretty soon.
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A
The president made the comment during a sit down with Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takechi, the first foreign leader to meet with him since he asked Japan and other allies to help secure the Strait of Hormuz. NBC News correspondent Janice Mcu Frere has more.
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There's enormous pressure on Sanai Takechi in meeting with President Trump. They appear to have a good rapport. They've bonded over politics and baseball but the war with Iran is looming over it. President Trump wanted allies like Japan to send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, but there's only so much Japan can legally do because its constitution limits use of force to self defense. Japan is also highly dependent on oil coming from the Middle east, so Takechi will get an earful at what was supposed to be an easy visit after her landslide victory and before President Trump was supposed to travel to China to meet with Xi Jinping. Instead, Takaichi is at the White House and walking a tightrope.
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At a House hearing, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said she had to, quote, unquote, check her personal views of war at the door in her current role, evading questions about whether a war started without an act of Congress was unconstitutional. Testifying for a second day about global threats on Capitol Hill, both Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe refused to say whether Iran was close to achieving a nuclear weapon. Meanwhile, Gabbard's former deputy National Counterterrorism center director Joe Kent, who announced that he'd resigned in protest over the war with Iran, is under investigation by the FBI for allegedly leaking classified information, according to a source familiar with the matter. The investigation began before Kent announced his resignation. In his first interview since his departure, Joe Kent told Tucker Carlson on Wednesday that he expected there would be attempts to, quote, unquote, discredit him for his protest, but he said he would welcome a chance to speak with President Trump. The White House referred questions to the FBI, which declined to comment. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has not responded to a request for comment. Removing fluoride from drinking water would cause a significant increase of kids with cavities and soaring Medicaid costs, according to a new study out today. The nonprofit CareQuest Institute for Oral Health conducted an analysis that used Medicaid claims data and survey responses to test what would happen if five states Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri and Oklahoma stopped adding fluoride to water systems. All of these states have either enacted or proposed legislation to ban fluoride or make it optional. The analysis found that within three years, over 130,000 additional kids would need a cavity filled or a tooth pulled, which could lead to Medicaid costs topping $40 million. And finally, if you're on the search for happiness in your life as we all are, you might want to try Finland. For the ninth year in a row, the Nordic nation has come out on top of the World Happiness Report, with other Scandinavian countries coming in close behind in the top 10 out of 140 countries. A big mover, by the way, was Costa rica, jumping from 23rd in 2021 to number four this year. The US state about the same ranked 23. Not great. Our second lowest rating. Here was the prompt that people actually had to answer. Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you, and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time? So where do you stand? Gosh, I'd say I'm maybe at a six and that is why I'm in therapy. That's gonna do it for us. Here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Vesugian. We'll be back tomorrow with whatever the day may bring. And if you like what you heard, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And you can also subscribe to our daily newsletter, the Inside Scoop. It is a deeper dive on the main stories of the day that comes out every weeknight straight to your inbox. You can sign up for the Inside Scoop as part of our paid subscription@nbcnews.com we'll see you tomorrow and hopefully you'll be a seven or even a nine. We don't need to think big. Early birds always rise to the occasion for summer vacation planning because early gets you closer to the action. So don't be late. Book your next vacation early on VRBO and save over $120. Rise and shine average savings $141 select homes only.