CNN says Lewandowski no longer being paid by Trump campaign

NEW YORK – CNN said Thursday that its analyst Corey Lewandowski, the former Donald Trump campaign manager, has cut all financial ties to the campaign and is no longer receiving monthly severance payments.

Lewandowski made light of the issue in an on-air announcement with anchor Alisyn Camerota. “Forty days to go in the election, and now this is the breaking news of the day,” he said.

The Trump campaign confirmed that it had fulfilled all of its contractual obligations to Lewandowski, and it will be reflected in the next Federal Election Commission filing. The campaign had said last week that Lewandowski had been due severance payments until the end of the year.

Lewandowski’s hiring by CNN shortly after he had been fired by Trump raised questions about whether he could talk at all candidly about the campaign he had been a part of, particularly since Trump demands former employees sign agreements not to divulge secrets or disparage the campaign. CNN chief executive Jeff Zucker has said he believes it is important to have some analysts who reflect Trump’s point of view.

Ethical questions were raised when Trump’s August FEC filing listed Lewandowski being paid $20,000 in August for “strategy consulting.” But the campaign said that was part of a severance agreement and that he no longer had a role in the campaign.

Since then, Lewandowski told CNN that he had agreed on a payout with the campaign in order to avoid future distractions, said a network executive who spoke on condition of anonymity because it was a personnel matter.