September 29, 2016 | No Comments
Former Donald Trump campaign manager and now CNN contributor Corey Lewandowski is no longer receiving severance payments from the campaign.
CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota made the announcement on Thursday morning.
“In previous appearances we have told you that Corey was still receiving severance from the Trump campaign,” Camerota said as she introduced Lewandowski for a segment. “That is no longer the case we are told. Are you done with those payments?”
“Amazing, everything comes to an end,” Lewandowski said, joking that “40 days” before the election, this was news.
“I didn’t think those would run out,” Camerota said.
According to a CNN source, the decision came from the Trump campaign which came to the conclusion that the payments were a “distraction.”
Lewandowski was fired from the Trump campaign in June and hired by CNN a few days later. Per his contract with Trump, he was set to continue to receive severance payments from the campaign through the end of 2016, an unique position for a former campaign staffer.
Lewandowski’s CNN job and relationship with the Trump campaign — he signed a non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreement with the Trump campaign — has led to criticism that CNN was paying someone who was effectively still on a campaign payroll. And, as POLITICO reported earlier this month, Lewandowski has been playing a wider role in the campaign recently, even if he technically is not an official part of it.
We’ve reached out to the Trump campaign and will update here accordingly.