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 Donald J. Trump paid his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski $20,000 in August for “strategy consulting,” two months after Mr. Lewandowski left the team and was hired by CNN as a commentator. 
 
 The payment, revealed in Federal Election Commission filings on Tuesday, was the second monthly consulting fee paid to Mr. Lewandowski through his consulting company since he left the Trump campaign and joined CNN, raising questions about whether the network in effect has a Trump campaign strategist on its payroll. 
 
 Mr. Lewandowski still speaks with Mr. Trump regularly. Reached by phone, Mr. Lewandowski said he could not comment because of his contractual obligations with CNN. 
 
 But Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Mr. Trump, said that the payments were actually severance payments owed to Mr. Lewandowski under his old contract with Mr. Trump’s campaign. 
 
 “Corey Lewandowski, who is no longer involved in the campaign, continues to receive monthly severance payments,” Mr. Cheung said. “The campaign will continue to honor its contract with Mr. Lewandowski, which stipulates he will be paid through the end of the year. These payments are in no way compensation for services rendered.” 
 
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 But on F.E.C. paperwork, the campaign listed both the August and July payments as “strategy consulting.” Mr. Cheung did not respond to a follow-up email about why the payments were not described to the F.E.C. as severance. 
 
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 In July, when Donna Brazile, a CNN contributor, took over as interim chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, the network suspended her contract. 
 
 Barbara Levin, a CNN spokeswoman, likewise said that the payments were severance and were disclosed to viewers whenever Mr. Lewandowski appeared. 
 
 “We disclose the severance payment publicly each time he is on our air,” Ms. Levin said. ||||| CNN commentator and former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was paid $20,000 in August by the campaign for what it described as “strategy consulting,” raising anew the conflict of interest issue that has dogged the cable network’s hiring of Lewandowski. 
 
 CNN has said previously that Trump’s payments to Lewandowski and his consulting firm were “severance” for his employment by Trump. It began introducing his appearances on the air last month by mentioning that he receives severance from Trump. 
 
 But the payments continued in August, according to Trump’s campaign expenditure filing released Tuesday night. The description used by Trump’s campaign in the filing — “strategy consulting” — also suggested that Lewandowski is playing a more active and current role in the campaign than “severance” would suggest. 
 
 If so, it would put CNN in the position of employing a person who is also compensated by the campaign and the candidate he comments on — a conflict that most journalistic organizations prohibit. 
 
 Representatives of CNN declined to comment. 
 
 1 of 12 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Who is former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski? View Photos The presidential candidate has fired Lewandowski, who was connected to several controversies during his tenure. Caption The presidential candidate has fired Lewandowski, who was connected to several controversies during his tenure. Corey Lewandowski, an unknown political operative before signing on with Trump, saw his star rise with his candidate’s. Charlie Neibergall/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 In a statement Wednesday morning, Trump press secretary Hope Hicks said, “Corey Lewandowski, who is no longer involved in the campaign, continues to receive monthly severance payments. The campaign will continue to honor its contract with Mr. Lewandowski, which stipulates he will be paid through the end of the year. These payments are in no way compensation for services rendered.” 
 
 Lewandowski has apparently maintained close ties with the campaign despite being fired by Trump and escorted from Trump Tower by security officers in June. Various news reports have described him as an “informal” adviser to the campaign. 
 
 CNN chairman Jeff Zucker has repeatedly defended the hiring of Lewandowski, most recently at an employee town hall meeting on Tuesday, according to the Huffington Post. Zucker has said the network needed to add pro-Trump voices to balance the stable of commentators who support Hillary Clinton and that Lewandowski brought inside knowledge of Trump’s campaign. 
 
 The network’s hiring of Lewandowski in June drew criticism from viewers and journalists because of his overt partisanship and his testy relationship with the news media during the time he ran Trump’s campaign. Lewandowski was Trump’s manager from the time of his formal announcement in June 2015 until his firing a year later. 
 
 During his tenure, Lewandowski oversaw Trump’s ban on nearly a dozen news organizations, including The Washington Post, from receiving credentials to cover Trump’s campaign events. He also manhandled a reporter, Michelle Fields, as she sought to question Trump after a press conference in March. A Florida prosecutor declined to press charges against Lewandowski. 
 
 The new payment by Trump to Lewandowski drew criticism on Twitter when it was disclosed in the filing last night. 
 
 “This is just indefensible on CNN’s part,” tweeted Jon Lovett, a former speechwriter for President Obama. “Who benefits from this? Not CNN, not the viewer. No one but Lewandowski and Trump. Wrong and stupid.” 
 
 Lewandowski reflexively defends Trump when he speaks on CNN. He is still apparently bound by a non-disclosure agreement with the campaign that limits what he can say about his time as campaign manager. 
 
 Lewandowski’s firm, Green Monster Consulting, also received a $20,000 fee from the Trump campaign in July. Under criticism for that payment, CNN began introducing all of Lewandowski’s segments with the disclaimer about severance. It typically doesn’t disclose the amount of money his firm receives. ||||| Editor’s Note: Based on information from a high level CNN source, we initially reported that Corey Lewandowski was suspended from CNN. CNN has now gotten back to us and firmly denied that Lewandowski has been suspended, and said that he will be on air later today. We regret what now appears to have been an error and have made changes accordingly, but stand by our reporting that Lewandowski was pulled off the air this morning because of the brewing controversy. 
 
 What's confusing is some cnners were confirming reports of suspension to me https://t.co/LZgXncsaiW — Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) September 21, 2016 
 
 In the words of Mark Twain "the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." Will be on @CNN today during the 3:00 PM hour. Tune in! — Corey R. Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) September 21, 2016 
 
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 Mediaite has learned that Corey Lewandowski, the former embattled campaign manager for the Trump campaign who joined CNN as a political contributor on June 23rd, has been pulled, at least temporarily, by the cable news net. This comes on the heels of the revelation that Lewandowski was still being paid by the Trump campaign. The question now, was it just severance or something more. 
 
 According to our source, Lewandowski was stopped from appearing on CNN’s New Day this morning. 
 
 FEC filings from the months of July and August reveal that the Donald Trump campaign gave Lewandowski’s Green Monster Consulting company $20,000 for what was listed as “strategy consulting.” 
 
 Lewandowski was released from his role as campaign manager on June 20, then quickly joined CNN within days. FEC filings however reveal that the $20,000 in consulting fees were paid to Green Monster in the months following his ouster. 
 
 Many CNN staffers were reportedly incensed when Lewandowski was hired by the network; Page Six at the time wrote, “CNN is facing a near internal revolt over the Corey hiring,” and another staffer in the building put it more bluntly: “Everyone at CNN — and even people who used to work there — are pissed about Trump’s former campaign manager being hired on salary.” 
 
 During his first official network appearance on June 23, Lewandowski promised CNN and its viewers, “I will tell it like it is.” According to reports at the time, the 43-year-old Lewandowski signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement with the campaign after his firing, though he emphatically denied it doing so. Lewandowski brought a string of controversies and negative headlines to the campaign during his time there, stemming largely from an altercation with then-Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields at a Trump campaign event at the Mar-a-Lago in Florida on March 8. The campaign manager faced battery charges at the time that were eventually dropped. 
 
 This information is developing, and we have reached out to CNN for comment. 
 
 UPDATED: 10:36 a.m. EST: The Donald Trump campaign reached out moments ago with the following statement from Hope Hicks regarding Lewandowski’s status: 
 
 “Corey Lewandowski, who is no longer involved in the campaign, continues to receive monthly severance payments. The campaign will continue to honor its contract with Mr. Lewandowski, which stipulates he will be paid through the end of the year. These payments are in no way compensation for services rendered.” 
 
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 J.D. Durkin (@jiveDurkey) is an editorial producer and columnist at Mediaite. 
 
 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
– CNN was widely criticized for hiring a former Trump campaign manager as a commentator back in June. So you can imagine the reaction now that it appears the network may have actually hired a current Trump strategy consultant. The Washington Post reports FEC filings from the Trump campaign show Corey Lewandowski was paid $20,000 by the campaign in August for "strategy consulting." It was the second monthly payment Lewandowski received from the Trump campaign since being fired in June, according to the New York Times. CNN described the first payment as "severance." The Trump campaign claims this second payment was also severance. But it didn't respond when asked why both payments are listed as consulting instead. CNN and Lewandowski refused to comment. The Trump campaign says Lewandowski will continue to receive severance payments through the end of the year. If Lewandowski is indeed still a paid consultant for Trump, it would represent a conflict of interest typically seen as unethical in journalism. Mediaite reports Lewandowski was pulled from a scheduled appearance on CNN's New Day on Wednesday after news of the most recent payment broke. It also originally reported he had been suspended by CNN, but the network denies it.