Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager and a potential candidate for a role in the White House under Trump, said New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet “should be in jail” for publishing pages from Trump’s 1995 tax documents earlier this year.
Politico reported Lewandowski went after Baquet during an ugly post-election forum at Harvard University on Thursday.
“We had one of the top people at The New York Times come to Harvard University and say, ‘I’m willing to go to jail to get a copy of Donald Trump’s taxes so I can publish them,’” Lewandowski said, according to Politico. “Dean Baquet came here and offered to go to jail — you’re telling me, he’s willing to commit a felony on a private citizen to post his taxes, and there isn’t enough scrutiny on the Trump campaign and his business dealings and his taxes?”
“It’s egregious,” Lewandowski added. “He should be in jail.”
Lewandowski and Baquet have traded barbs before. In early October, just after the Times published the tax documents, Lewandowski suggested that Trump sue the Times “into oblivion.”
“There is no national security interest to Donald Trump’s taxes,” Lewandowski argued while also questioning whether the documents were accurate. (The Times verified the documents with Jack Mitnick, an accountant who handled Trump’s taxes for years. Mitnick called the documents “legit.”)
In a late October interview with the Financial Times, Baquet criticized CNN for hiring Lewandowski, calling the move “outrageous” and describing Lewandowski as a “political shill.” Baquet said both CNN and Fox News’ coverage of the 2016 presidential election was “bad for democracy and those institutions.”
CNN President Jeff Zucker received further backlash about Lewandowski’s time with the company at the Harvard post-election forum Thursday. According to Politico, as Zucker was criticized at the forum, Lewandowski attempted to defend himself, “insisting he was adding value to the CNN airwaves.”
