Anyone who attempted to cooperate with an outside source to change the outcome of the 2016 presidential election should go to jail for the rest of their lives, President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Monday, after his name reportedly turned up on a witness' subpoena list for information along with others in the Trump campaign.
"We have seen they have indicted 13 Russians," Lewandowski told CNN's "New Day."
"If they have found individuals who are trying to impact the outcome of the election from the U.S., those people need to go to jail. Our democracy is too sacred."
Axios reported over the weekend examining a subpoena given to a witness going before a grand jury in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the 2016 election. The subpoena contains the names of 10 people, with instructions for the witness to retain all communications shared with those people.
The list includes former campaign aide Carter Page, Lewandowski, Trump, former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, former Trump bodyguard and Oval Office director Keith Schiller, Trump attorney Michael Cohen, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates, Trump confidante Roger Stone, and former White House strategist Steve Bannon.
Lewandowski told "New Day" co-host Chris Cuomo that the list most likely represents standard procedure for the Mueller investigation, to determine of there was any "collusion or cooperation or coordination," which "we know there wasn't."
"They want to look and see any communication between staffers that potentially they would be interested in, and my guess is, this is information that the Mueller team would already have access to," said Lewandowski.
The Trump campaign has cooperated with Mueller's investigation in "any way, shape, or form," said Lewandowski.
"Any electronic communication between potential individuals that were associated with the campaign that were done on the campaign communication network would have been preserved already," he added. "I'm sure the Mueller team already has those."
Lewandowski continued that the only communications that he's familiar with are the ones related to himself, and that he "didn't coordinate or cooperate" with anyone.
He also commented on a Washington Post article quoting 22 White House staffers saying the White House is "dysfunctional" and chaotic.
"Well, I love the sources that aren't willing to go on the record," said Lewandowski. "I think if people want to complain about their jobs, let me tell you this, I have never worked in the White House. But this is an extremely difficult environment under any circumstances.
"If you go back and talk to our friends who worked there in the past ... 18 hours a day, seven days a week, is very difficult. But, look, it is an amazing privilege to be able to serve our country by working in the White House."
"If you don't think you're in the right position, do yourself and the president of the country the service they deserve and leave," said Lewandowski. "You don't like it, you can leave. It's still a free country."
He said he does know Chief of Staff John Kelly is keeping a tight rein on the White House, and that there are"some people who don't like that."
However, Lewandowski said he does not think Kelly will force Trump's daughter, Ivanka, or her husband, Jared Kushner, to resign, and he believe they'll be able to stay inside the West Wing as long as they would like.
"When you look back at a number of people who didn't have their access to a top secret security clearance, there is a rationale for understanding there has to be a process in place to make sure that people should have access to the right type of clearances for our own country," said Lewandowski.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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