On October 20, Trump offered two rewards.

One was $1 million for anyone who reported voter fraud that led to the arrest and conviction of the fraudsters. So far, no one has claimed the prize, but who knows? There is still time.

The other was a reward for anyone reporting fraud in government spending. That’s the one I wanted to blow the whistle on.

Here is an open-and-shut case of fraud.

In 2025, the private prison operator CoreCivic offered to see a huge prison complex to the state of Minnesota for $75 million. The state turned down the offer.

The same prison complex was purchased by Trump’s Department of Homeland Security a year later for $495 million.

The story was reported by The New York Times:

CoreCivic, a private prison company, approached the Minnesota Department of Corrections last year offering to sell a long-shuttered detention facility. The price: $75 million.

State officials passed. They didn’t have the funds to buy the Prairie Correctional Facility in western Minnesota, nor did they need a prison of its size or have the ability to staff it.

Last summer, to their astonishment, the 1,600-bed prison sold for more than $495 million. The buyer: the Department of Homeland Security.

Why is the federal government getting ripped off?

Clearly somebody at CoreCivic had a big payday.

I went online to learn how to report this fraud.

My report, I discovered, is not covered by the federal whistleblower program.

First of all, the departments covered by statute do not include the Department of Homeland Security. Even if they overpaid by more than $400 million, so what?

The Department of Justice will approve awards pursuant to the Fraud Rewards Program in its sole discretion and may decline to pay a reward as it deems appropriate. At this time, the $10,000 to $30,000 reward payments that are made pursuant to the Fraud Rewards Program will be limited to: (1) Federal health care offenses and related crimes involving health care benefit programs or fraud against patients or others in the health care industry; or (2) fraud on programs or benefits administered by the Department of Agriculture (e.g., the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), the Department of Labor (e.g., unemployment fraud), the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Education (e.g., student aid fraud), the Department of Veterans Affairs, or the Small Business Administration. The Fraud Rewards Program places a particular emphasis on submissions involving the following subject matter areas: hospice, home health care, day care, and special services fraud.

See? No DHS frauds are covered by the program.

Then, reading through the guidelines, I discovered that I am not eligible to report the fraud because it was published. My knowledge of the fraud comes not from inside information, but from reading about it in The New York Times.

Original Information: An individual must provide, in writing, original information, meaning:

  1. Information that is derived from the individual’s independent knowledge or independent analysis.
    1. Independent knowledge means factual information in the individual’s possession that is not derived from publicly available sources. The individual may gain independent knowledge from their experiences, communications, and observations in their business or social interactions.
    2. Independent analysis means the individual’s own analysis, whether done alone or in combination with others. Analysis means the individual’s examination and evaluation of information that may be publicly available, but which reveals information that is not generally known or available to the public.

In conclusion, I can’t report the fraud because I read about it in the newspaper and it was committed by the DHS.