Days after a Republican donor accused Corey Lewandowski, a longtime Donald Trump adviser, of sexually harassing her at a Las Vegas charity dinner in September 2021, she received an unexpected and apologetic phone call.<\/p>\n
The call was from the former president seeking to reassure her, said the donor, Trashelle Odom, who alleged that Lewandowski had repeatedly groped her and made sexually explicit comments at the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really appreciated him taking the time to call me,\u201d Odom said in a recent interview with The Washington Post, speaking about Trump\u2019s outreach, which has not been previously reported.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump Jr., the former president\u2019s eldest son, also called to check on her, she said, and promised that Lewandowski would face consequences. He was quickly ejected from his leadership role at a pro-Trump organization, with a Trump spokesman announcing that Lewandowski \u201cwill no longer be associated with Trump World.\u201d<\/p>\n
But three years later, Lewandowski, 50, is officially back in the fold. The former president recently named him a senior campaign adviser \u2014 leaving Odom feeling distraught and betrayed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just undid everything,\u201d said Odom, 35. \u201cI am very worried about his access to other women, and I am worried about the power the campaign is giving him over those women.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s team earlier this month touted the \u201cunmatched experience\u201d of Lewandowski and several others brought on board as the former president struggles to find his footing against Vice President Kamala Harris, the newly minted Democratic nominee. People who know both men say Trump is trying to recapture the energy of his insurgent 2016 race by elevating one of his first campaign hires, who famously indulged his most pugnacious impulses with the mantra \u201cLet Trump be Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Trump\u2019s mind, Corey helped him win in 2016, so it makes sense to bring him back,\u201d said Jane Timken, a Republican national committeewomen from Ohio who hired Lewandowski during her unsuccessful U.S. Senate bid in 2022 and described him as a savvy and well-connected consultant. \u201cNobody\u2019s perfect. Trump trusts his political advice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though aides have presented Trump\u2019s third bid for the White House as a more disciplined, professionalized operation, his embrace of Lewandowski points to an enduring feature of the former president\u2019s approach to politics: his high tolerance for people with professional liabilities so long as they remain loyal to him. In addition to Odom, two other women previously reported Lewandowski to police for unwanted physical contact, records show. He has denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s whole campaign is a test of traditional mechanisms of accountability \u2014 for himself and those around him. He is seeking to return to power after a felony conviction for falsifying business records to conceal a sex scandal and a civil jury verdict that he committed sexual abuse in the 1990s \u2014 wide-ranging legal consequences that he and his allies have converted into a rallying cry and used to cast themselves as victims.<\/p>\n
Lewandowski, in a brief phone interview earlier this month, said he didn\u2019t know what his campaign responsibilities would be and to whom he would report. \u201cI\u2019m a friend of the president is what I am,\u201d he said. He did not respond to detailed follow-up questions about the reporting in this story.<\/p>\n
In response to questions about Lewandowski\u2019s record and role in the campaign, spokesman Steven Cheung said, \u201cPresident Trump has a world-class team dedicated to helping elect him once again to the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the past decade, as many Trump advisers have come and gone, Lewandowski has remained faithful \u2014 while also faithfully leveraging his relationship with Trump for money and influence, according to a review of his work and interviews with people familiar with it.<\/p>\n
Lewandowski has classified his work as consulting and is not registered as a federal lobbyist, which would require him to disclose his clients. But public records obtained by The Post show how he used his connection to Trump to land business contracts. He also has been paid by numerous candidates as they jockeyed, sometimes unsuccessfully, for Trump\u2019s endorsement, according to campaign and court records. And he piggybacked on the former president\u2019s brand by chairing Ultra MAGA PAC, a group purporting to support \u201cAmerica First patriots\u201d but spending only about 2 percent of its donations to directly support Trump-friendly candidates, records show.<\/p>\n
The lasting bond between the two men is clear. While campaigning in Lewandowski\u2019s home state of New Hampshire earlier this year, Trump welcomed him to the stage, musing, \u201cNobody was closer to me.\u201d At another event, Trump called Lewandowski \u201ca very, very good friend of mine who is very powerful actually.\u201d He asked whether Lewandowski would ever leave New Hampshire.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly to go back to the White House, sir,\u201d responded Lewandowski, who never formally worked in Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n
Lewandowski said he had met Trump just once before the businessman summoned him to Trump Tower in January 2015 and asked him to manage the 2016 presidential campaign. The political operative and former congressional staffer brought a brash and confrontational style that appealed to the long-shot Republican candidate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hit it off, and if you don\u2019t hit it off with your campaign manager, you have a problem,\u201d Trump told The Post during that campaign.<\/p>\n
Trump fired him before Election Day, though. He was arrested on one count of simple battery in March 2016 after grabbing a Breitbart News reporter\u2019s arm as she approached Trump with a question. Lewandowski wasn\u2019t prosecuted. But amid a power struggle with other campaign advisers, Lewandowski was pushed out in June.<\/p>\n
Lewandowski continued to champion his former boss in frequent media appearances, and when Trump won, the onetime campaign manager launched a consulting and lobbying shop with another Trump campaign veteran. The following spring, amid media scrutiny of the firm\u2019s offers of access to top administration officials, Lewandowski quit, maintaining that he had not done any lobbying.<\/p>\n
About a week later, he incorporated Lewandowski Strategic Advisors. He shared office space and some clients with Turnberry Solutions, a lobbying firm run by two other Trump veterans, according to a person familiar with the arrangement who, like some others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation.<\/p>\n
Lewandowski\u2019s access to Trump was a primary selling point, according to records and interviews.<\/p>\n
In 2017 and 2018, for instance, Lewandowski worked for a utility company in Ohio called FirstEnergy as it pushed the Trump administration to bail out its struggling coal and nuclear power plants. The federal money never came through, but a parallel state effort culminated in a bribery scandal in which FirstEnergy was accused of funneling millions to state lawmakers in exchange for a $1.3 billion bailout. The result: a $230 million fine against the company and a prison sentence for the speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
Lewandowski wasn\u2019t accused of wrongdoing. But emails and text messages subpoenaed by the Ohio Consumers\u2019 Counsel, the state\u2019s consumer protection agency, and released in response to a public records request, show how Lewandowski helped arrange access to Trump for FirstEnergy executives who were later charged with wide-ranging felonies. They have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial. FirstEnergy, in a statement, said the firm has \u201cmade meaningful improvements to advance our culture of ethics, integrity and accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n
A May 2017 email from Michael Dowling, FirstEnergy\u2019s senior vice president of external affairs, identified Lewandowski as an outside consultant retained to \u201cformalize and enhance our advocacy efforts.\u201d In his phone interview with The Post, Lewandowski said that the company \u201cnever paid me a dime,\u201d and that he was simply personal friends with Dowling, who is no longer with the company and whose lawyer declined to comment.<\/p>\n
A contract reviewed by The Post, between FirstEnergy and Lewandowski Strategic Advisors, indicates that FirstEnergy had agreed to pay Lewandowski $50,000 per month for \u201cstrategic advice and counsel.\u201d Lewandowski did not respond to questions about the contract.<\/p>\n
The month that the contract was executed, one of Lewandowski\u2019s associates at Turnberry Solutions wrote to Dowling about a meeting Lewandowski was arranging with Trump. \u201cCorey is waiting for the final ok from POTUS on the meeting,\u201d wrote the associate, Mike Rubino, who did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
A year later, FirstEnergy allies shared an article about Trump\u2019s support for a coal bailout. \u201cBoom!!!\u201d wrote Lewandowski, according to the emails. He added, \u201cThe WH did the right thing on this \u2026 with a little encouragement from us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s then-CEO, Chuck Jones, ribbed the Trump confidant for being modest. \u201cThat can\u2019t be the articulate, suave Corey Lewandowski I\u2019ve been watching on TV the last year and a half,\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n
The following month, Lewandowski was involved in discussions about arranging for Jones to speak to Trump during a swing through West Virginia, according to text messages among FirstEnergy executives and allies. Jones told Lewandowski and others that Trump seemed supportive when they spoke, telling the CEO, \u201cIt\u2019s coming, we\u2019re on it.\u201d Lewandowski reacted positively, writing, \u201cI\u2019m glad he gets it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doing business in Trump\u2019s Washington also meant participating in the MAGA social scene. At a holiday party at Trump International Hotel in November 2017, Lewandowski was accused of slapping the buttocks of a singer and Trump supporter who had made headlines when she wore a \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d dress to the Grammys months earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could report you for sexual harassment,\u201d the singer, Joy Villa, recalled telling Lewandowski in an interview with The Post. She said Lewandowski responded, \u201cGo ahead, I work in the private sector\u201d \u2014 and then hit her buttocks again.<\/p>\n
Villa filed a report with police alleging sexual abuse. \u201cI felt extremely humiliated and devalued,\u201d she said. In an interview on Fox Business at the time, Lewandowski said, \u201cThere is a due process and there is a process which they will go through to determine a person\u2019s innocence.\u201d He was not charged.<\/p>\n
Villa said her Christian faith has led her to forgive Lewandowski. And as a Republican, she doesn\u2019t want her encounter with Lewandowski to harm the former president\u2019s political prospects. \u201cI\u2019m definitely a Trumper,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As Trump was preparing to leave office in early 2021, Lewandowski and a business partner made an audacious offer amid the mad dash for clemency in Trump\u2019s final days in power: They would urge the president to pardon Bradley Birkenfeld, a whistleblower and former wealth manager convicted of fraud, according to Birkenfeld\u2019s account to the Atlantic magazine and confirmed to The Post by a person familiar with the discussions. This person said Lewandowski told a Birkenfeld associate over the phone that he would need $500,000 upfront \u2014 before a scheduled meeting with Trump on Jan. 5, 2021 \u2014 plus $1 million if Birkenfeld landed the pardon.<\/p>\n
Birkenfeld told the Atlantic he refused, and no grant of clemency materialized. He declined to comment. Lewandowski contested Birkenfeld\u2019s account to the magazine, saying, \u201cI never asked for money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewandowski was prepared to make the most of Trump\u2019s exile from Washington.<\/p>\n
On social media, he describes himself as chairman of a political action committee launched in the waning days of Trump\u2019s presidency and aimed at \u201cDRAINING THE SWAMP AND ELECTING AMERICA FIRST PATRIOTS TO TAKE BACK OUR GOVERNMENT,\u201d according to the group\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
In early 2021, he also began running Make America Great Again Action, a different pro-Trump PAC that landed a $60,000 contribution from the construction company owned by Odom\u2019s husband, John Odom.<\/p>\n
Lewandowski found consulting work for Trump-friendly political candidates preparing for the midterm elections. He became especially active with South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem, helping her raise her national profile and establishing her as a possible running mate for Trump in 2024, according two former Noem aides.<\/p>\n
But Lewandowski soon jeopardized his status in Republican politics. In September 2021, he was seated next to Trashelle Odom, a mother of three who was living in Idaho, at a charity dinner at a Las Vegas hotel. According to a police report she later filed, she said Lewandowski drank a half-dozen cocktails while repeatedly touching her hand, buttocks and back and making \u201cmultiple inappropriate, aggressive, violent and unwanted sexual comments.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said Lewandowski boasted about the size of his genitalia and sexual stamina. He told her he was close to Trump, she told police, and said he could \u201cdestroy anyone.\u201d After dinner, she said, he followed her around the hotel and made crude remarks about her body. He later threw a drink at her and called her stupid, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was intimidated and frightened and fearful for my safety,\u201d she told police, according to the report.<\/p>\n
Noem, who attended the dinner, vowed to sever ties with Lewandowski as a result of the allegations, which were reported at the time by Politico. So did Charles Herbster, a Republican gubernatorial candidate in Nebraska who had hired the longtime Trump ally.<\/p>\n
Trump did not publicly comment on the episode, or reveal that he had spoken personally to Odom, who declined to go into detail about what the former president told her. But a Trump spokesman announced that Lewandowski would no longer be in charge of the main pro-Trump super PAC.<\/p>\n
Lewandowski was later charged with battery. To get the misdemeanor case dismissed, he agreed to attend an eight-hour impulse control course, log 50 hours of community service and \u201cstay out of trouble\u201d for one year, according to court records. He did not admit guilt, but he did issue an apology.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to state to the court that I wish to apologize to Ms. Odom for any discomfort I may have caused her on the evening of September 26th of 2021,\u201d Lewandowski said one year later in county court in Las Vegas, according to a transcript.<\/p>\n
But the repercussions faced by Lewandowski were limited from the outset. Noem continued to rely on Lewandowski as an adviser, according to someone involved in her political operation at the time. (A Noem spokesman did not respond to questions about the episode.) Lewandowski also continued to raise money through the PAC founded in the twilight of the Trump administration and now called Ultra MAGA PAC.<\/p>\n
Among the PAC\u2019s first moves was backing the congressional campaign of an Ohio coal lobbyist, Mike Carey, whom Lewandowski has described as a longtime friend. Otherwise, Lewandowski\u2019s PAC has spent little on candidates. Of the roughly $2.35 million collected since 2021, only about $55,000 \u2014 or 2 percent \u2014 went directly into races, while most of the money was spent on fundraising.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see this every election cycle \u2014 groups that are raising money through direct mail and then turning around and spending all of their money on that,\u201d said Andrew Mayersohn, a researcher at OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign finance. \u201cThere\u2019s very little evidence of actual campaign activity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewandowski has also worked directly for candidates seeking Trump\u2019s blessing. In 2022, he sued Eric Deters, whose bid for governor of Kentucky he had been advising, claiming that Deters owed him about $36,000. Deters countersued \u201cthe scoundrel who is Corey Lewandowski,\u201d also claiming breach of contract, according to court records.<\/p>\n
Deters had paid $75,000 to mingle with Trump at the Kentucky Derby, he said in court filings. Trump later endorsed one of his opponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only reason I hired Corey Lewandowski was to get the Trump endorsement,\u201d Deters said in a recent interview. \u201cThat was the whole ballgame.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewandowski said in court filings that he told Deters he could not guarantee the endorsement and that the candidate was to blame for failing to secure Trump\u2019s backing. Both suits were dismissed, and Lewandowski continued to land high-profile campaign work, including advising Jeff Landry\u2019s successful bid for governor of Louisiana in 2023.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Lewandowski inched closer to the presidential race, receiving about $81,000 for advising the Republican National Committee. At the GOP convention in July, he reminisced about his last Trump campaign job while exuding confidence about the present, telling The Post, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t change one minute of the \u201916 campaign if I could. But I\u2019ll tell you what, I like the spot that we\u2019re in today in 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n
A month later, he joined the Trump campaign.<\/p>\n
Lewandowski soon became involved in the campaign\u2019s latest imbroglio. He posted a photo of Trump flashing a thumbs-up in a section of Arlington National Cemetery where his campaign had been told not to take photos, according to defense officials. An employee at the cemetery reported a brief altercation with two campaign workers when she sought to stop the campaign from taking photos. The woman filed a complaint but declined to press charges.<\/p>\n
Odom, meanwhile, is still a registered Republican but no longer involved in politics. She and her husband have since divorced. She declined to discuss the presidential race and said she rarely reads news articles because the publicity generated by her encounter with Lewandowski was so painful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he faced repercussions for a short period of time, but in the end it didn\u2019t matter,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t mean to sound like a victim because I hate that word, but this was something I was forced to go through, and I never want any other woman to have go through the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clara Ence Morse and Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Days after a Republican donor accused Corey Lewandowski, a longtime Donald Trump adviser, of sexually harassing her at a Las Vegas charity dinner in September 2021, she received an unexpected and apologetic phone call. The call was from the former president seeking to reassure her, said the donor, Trashelle Odom, who alleged that Lewandowski had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8840,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}