Omarosa Manigault Newman has released a new audio recording in which she and Lara Trump, the wife of President Donald Trump’s son Eric, are discussing a job offer with Trump’s re-election campaign that the former White House aide alleged was a hush agreement.
Manigault Newman writes in her book, “Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House,” that she turned down an offer from President Trump’s daughter-in-law to sign a nondisclosure agreement in exchange for a job on the President’s re-election campaign paying $15,000 per month. Manigault Newman said she was offered the deal after she was ousted from the White House last December.
Promoting her book this past week, Manigault Newman has released secret recordings she made of her conversations with the President and his aides, including a recording made in the White House Situation Room, raising national security questions.
In the newest audio recording released Thursday to MSNBC, Lara Trump, a senior adviser for Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, can be heard telling Manigault Newman “that there are some things you’ve got in the back pocket to pull out.” Trump appears to reference a New York Times article published shortly after Manigault Newman left the White House that gave the impression that the former aide was open to discussing her time in the administration.
“Clearly, if you come on board the campaign, like, we can’t have — we got to — everything, everybody positive, right?” Trump adds in the conversation with Manigault Newman.
Responding to Manigault Newman’s release of the recording, Lara Trump said discussions about a role within the campaign took place over several weeks and that the tape released on Thursday was a “fraud.”
“We still wanted her on our team because we cared so much about her personally. That’s why I reached out to offer her a position with the 2020 Trump Campaign before we knew anything about the gross violations of ethics and integrity during her White House tenure,” Lara Trump said in a statement.
“I am absolutely shocked and saddened by her betrayal and violation on a deeply personal level,” Trump added. “I hope it’s all worth it for you, Omarosa, because some things you just can’t put a price on.”
CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
Manigault Newman told MSNBC in an interview Thursday that she “absolutely” viewed the offer from Lara Trump as hush money and “an attempt to buy my silence.”
“She made it very clear if I joined this campaign that I would have to be quiet. I wouldn’t be allowed to talk to reporters. I wouldn’t be allowed to say anything against Donald Trump,” Manigault Newman said.
The White House has pushed back against the allegations Manigault Newman makes in her book and Trump has harshly criticized his former aide on Twitter.