Corey Lewandowski admits Trump hired actors for escalator campaign launch — then blames Michael Cohen

Former campaign manager to Donald Trump, Corey Lewandowski, is admitting that the campaign launch at Trump Tower was fueled by paid actors.

According to BusinessInsider, Lewandowski confessed that he lied in 2016 when he said, "You know Donald Trump. There is nobody who believes that when Donald Trump goes somewhere he does not generate the biggest, largest, and most rambunctious crowds on the planet. It's just not true, unequivocally. The Donald Trump campaign and Donald Trump did not pay anybody to attend his announcement."

Now Lewandowski is saying that he lied, but really it was all Michael Cohen's fault, claiming that the former Trump lawyer hired the actors who were on hand to cheer Trump.

"That's a Michael Cohen special," Lewandowski claimed. "Michael Cohen decided that he was going to go hire one of his buddies and pay his buddy without getting any campaign approval. You know, $50 for every person to come in, to stand in Trump Tower."

Cohen calls that completely false, noting that Trump hired the partner of a public relations firm to organize the launch event "professionally." David Schwartz, a partner at the Gotham Relations & Communications was the one who was behind organizing the day.

"Any allegation of payments to actors is an absolute lie that was promoted by Corey Lewandowski," said Cohen.

Schwartz confirmed Cohen's account.

"The reality is we hired 50 people, some of whom were part-time actors I found out later on. But we hired 50 people to help coordinate an event that brought in thousands of people," Schwartz explained.

Lewandowski was recruited to be the campaign manager in Jan. 2015, The Lowell Sun reported in July 2015. It's unclear why Lewandowski wouldn't be aware of firms being hired or why he would lie about Cohen recruiting actors. But Lewandowski has been lying about the paid actors for five years, so it's unclear what is true.

Read the full report at BusinessInsider.