Lewandowski, at first privately and then publicly through a lawyer, denied the details of the alleged incident. When that didn’t work, he resisted leaving. Lewandowski then subsequently settled on pitching Trumpworld a not-so-modest proposal: in exchange for his resignation, the super PAC and the pro-Trump team would pay him a large sum of money to go away. Two of the knowledgeable sources said the former 2016 Trump campaign manager’s demand was for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But even though that Lewandowski super PAC—called Make America Great Again Action—currently sits on $6.58 million, mostly from Trump megadonors, he didn’t have the leverage he seemed to think he had. His fellow Trump lieutenants gave him a hard no.

“It doesn’t matter if he’d asked for five dollars, it wasn’t going to happen,” one individual familiar with the situation noted bluntly.

One person who was keen on Lewandowski walking away empty-handed was none other than his ex-boss and pal: former President Trump. The twice-impeached ex-president didn’t want to see Lewandowski slinking away with any of that money—which Trump views as his money, despite the patina of distance that is legally required between candidates and super PACs.