Corey R. Lewandowski holds a poster for South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem during the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC held at the Hyatt Regency Orlando on Saturday, Feb 27, 2021 in Orlando, FL.
Jabin Botsford | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Even the governor of South Dakota is putting Corey Lewandowski out to pasture.
Gov. Kristi Noem’s spokesman said Thursday that Lewandowski — who was fired the night before as head of a super PAC backing Donald Trump after allegations of sexually harassing a donor — will not be advising Noem anymore.
Noem’s cold-shoulder to Lewandowski came a day after she denied, on her personal and official Twitter accounts, a report that she has been having an extramarital affair with the controversial political operative.
“Corey was always a volunteer, never paid a dime (campaign or official). He will not be advising the Governor in regard to the campaign or official office,” Noem’s communications director Ian Fury said in an email.
A law firm representing Lewandowski did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lewandowski for months had been acting as an advisor to Noem, a Republican who has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2024.
But on Wednesday, Lewandowski was hit with two bombshell articles.
One, on the conservative news site American Greatness, cited sources in a report that said the former 2016 Trump campaign manager had been having an affair with Noem, who like Lewandowski is married with children, “for months.”
Noem responded to that claim on Twitter, writing, “These rumors are total garbage and a disgusting lie. These old, tired attacks on conservative women are based on a falsehood that we can’t achieve anything without a man’s help.”
“I love Bryon,” Noem wrote, referring to her husband. “I’m proud of the God-fearing family we’ve raised together. Now I’m getting back to work.”
On the same day, Politico reported that a married donor to the Trump political action committee led by Lewandowski had accused him of “making unwanted sexual advances toward her at a Las Vegas charity event” last weekend, which included repeatedly touching her and speaking to her “in sexually graphic terms.”
Noem reportedly had been at the same event.
Lewandowski “repeatedly touched me inappropriately, said vile and disgusting things to me, stalked me, and made me feel violated and fearful,” the accuser, Trashelle Odom, said in a statement to Politico.
Two Las Vegas attorneys for Lewandowski, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, in a statement on that report said, “Accusations and rumors appear to be morphing by the minute, and we will not dignify them with a further response.”
But on Wednesday night, Taylor Budowich, a spokesman for Trump, said that Lewandowski was leaving as head of the Make America Great Again Action PAC, being replaced by the former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi.
