Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, dominated the media more than his boss on Tuesday as authorities in Florida charged him with misdemeanor battery following an altercation with a female Breitbart News reporter at a campaign rally earlier this month.
So who exactly is Lewandowski? Here are five things to know about him:
He worked for a congressman sentenced in the Abramoff scandal
Lewandowski was once chief of staff to Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican who pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges in 2007. Lewandowski wrote to the judge on behalf of Ney, via The Daily Beast:
“ 'I had the privilege of spending 20 hours a day with Bob seven days a week for over three years,' Lewandowski wrote in a letter to Judge Ellen S. Huvelle, who presided over Ney’s trial. 'In that time, I learned more about life, people, politics, friendships [sic] and the importance of family than I ever could have imagined. Bob served as a mentor to me, as a surrogate father, and as a best fiiend [sic] all in one …'No one can make excuses for what has occurred but I know a different Bob than what is portrayed in media accounts,' the letter continued."
Ney was sentenced to 30 months in the congressional bribery scandal.
He makes bank and lives in a nice house
As Politico notes, Lewandowski is pulling in a salary equivalent to close to a quarter of a million dollars annually to manage Trump’s campaign:
“ 'Corey has mouths to feed, and a business opportunity to go and make $20,000 a month doesn’t come around every day,' said former (New Hampshire) state party chairman Fergus Cullen, pointing out that Lewandowski, 40, supports a family of six and lives in a spacious home in Windham, on the Massachusetts border, valued at over $800,000 (that’s a lot for New Hampshire).”
He once brought a gun to the Capitol
And then he sued to get it back. No, really. From The New York Times:
“Mr. Lewandowski … made headlines when he brought an unloaded gun into a House office building in the bottom of his laundry bag. He was charged with a misdemeanor. He said it was an accident, and his lawsuit, charging that he had been denied due process when his gun was taken away, was thrown out by a judge.”
He ran for office while in college
Lewandowski was a political science student at the University of Massachusetts Lowell when he unsuccessfully ran to be a state representative, The Lowell Sun reports.
He went on to earn a master's degree at American University in Washington. And he worked on campaigns for a Massachusetts Republican congressman and for Ney. He also did stints at the Republican Party and Americans for Prosperity, a group backed by the Koch brothers.
"I've been so lucky," he told The Sun of his career in politics. "Politics is a tough business, obviously.”
He thinks Trump is the 'American Pharoah' of politics
In an interview with The Washington Post, Lewandowsi described his hands-off approach to the candidate:
"I see Mr. Trump as American Pharoah, the horse that just ran and won the Triple Crown. When you have a horse like that, American Pharoah, you have to let him do his thing. Let him run his race. And anybody who thinks that they are going to be able to dictate what Mr. Trump should or shouldn't do doesn't understand the unparalleled success that he has had across his life.”
