Lewandowski said then that Trump had instructed him twice to tell Sessions, then the attorney general, to curtail Mueller's investigation of Trump, and Lewandowski failed to do so, perhaps saving Trump from an overt act of obstructing justice. Lewandowski says he tells the truth while under oath. Credit:AP So how to square the two conflicting statements? During testimony before the House judiciary committee on Tuesday, Lewandowski said something that sparked an audible reaction from onlookers in the hearing room: "I have no obligation to be honest with the media because they're just as dishonest as anyone else." Basically he conceded that you can't take his word for it. During a combative interview on CNN on Wednesday morning, Lewandowski expanded upon his situational truthfulness, saying, "I'm as honest as I can be, as often as I can be."

Given his admission on Tuesday, that should have raised another question: Was he being honest about that? Loading CNN employed Lewandowski as an on-air commentator between April 2017 and June 2018, during which he repeatedly spoke on behalf of Trump and his administration's policies. CNN did not respond to a request for comment about Lewandowski on Wednesday. Despite widespread cynicism about honesty in Washington, Eric Schultz, a former spokesman for President Barack Obama, said Lewandowski's admission is one of a kind. "To be fair, I don't know a single other Democratic or Republican spokesperson who thinks this way," Schultz tweeted. "We all work hard to make our best case, but I've never worked with (or against) anyone on either side of the aisle who thinks lying is OK."

Journalists know their sources sometimes hedge their answers or spin for advantage. They also suspect that a few outright lie (an old saw in the reporting game: "If your mother says she loves you, check it out"). As president, Trump has made more than 12,000 suspect statements, according to The Washington Post's Fact Checker. Aides such as Kellyanne ("alternative facts") Conway and former press secretaries Sean Spicer and Sarah Sanders have made plainly inaccurate or false statements in their dealings with the press. But it's rare for anyone in the administration to correct the record, or admit fault in speaking to the news media. And it's unknown for them to admit that they lied. Until Lewandowski. The admission raises questions about how reporters should cover Lewandowski in the future, especially if, as expected, he declares his candidacy for a US Senate seat in New Hampshire.

"I fail to see the value in interviewing Lewandowski in any capacity as commentator or Trump proxy," said Gabriel Kahn, a professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, on Wednesday. "How would any news organisation properly contextualise that for the audience? 'We're about to hear from someone who quite possibly is not telling the truth, but let's hear what he has to say anyway'? "Any news organisation that puts him live on camera now, no matter what the chyron [or on-screen graphic] reads, does so for showmanship, not to further public understanding," Kahn said. He described Lewandowski's bad faith as part of a bigger strategy. It's "deliberate and calculated and part of a long-running campaign by the Trump movement to discredit news media so as to allow the administration to act without accountability." Lying to the media isn't a crime, but lying under oath is. Several figures who were involved in Trump's 2016 campaign, including George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn and Rick Gates, have been indicted or convicted of lying to federal authorities.