A controversial longtime strategist and ally of President Donald Trump has quietly assumed what is effectively second-in-command power at the Department of Homeland Security, leaving officials and staffers in a constant state of fear and subservience to his will, CNN reported on Tuesday morning.

Corey Lewandowski, who plunged Trump’s 2016 campaign into controversy and was fired as manager when he was accused of manhandling a right-wing female reporter, has been involved in DHS policy since even before Trump was sworn in, making major hiring decisions on behalf of Kristi Noem before she was even formally confirmed as secretary of that department.

Rumors have long swirled that Noem and Lewandowski, both married, have carried on an affair for years, although they have denied this.

Now, Lewandowski’s grip has only tightened, sources told CNN.

It’s at the point where he is seen by Noem’s side at critical overseas missions of the department, noted the report. “Last week, Lewandowski was pictured at Noem’s side during meetings in Argentina, the first stop of the secretary’s South America swing, and later participated in a bilateral meeting with Chilean and Ecuadorian officials, along with senior Homeland Security officials.”

Meanwhile, another source told CNN that the situation inside the department is tense. “He’s the de facto chief of staff in the department. Everyone is terrified of him because he has almost singular authority to fire people.”

All of this is going on as DHS has been embroiled in an avalanche of controversies as officials carry out the Trump administration’s draconian immigration policies, from mass deportations to foreign torture megaprisons, to ICE officers carrying out raids on non-criminal aliens with their identities concealed by masks, to the establishment of an infamous detention camp in the Florida Everglades.