Trump campaign takes legal action against former White House aide

President Donald Trump’s campaign organization filed an arbitration action Tuesday against former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, claiming she breached a 2016 confidentiality agreement by writing her new book, Unhinged: An Insider Account of the Trump White House, anonymous sources told The Associated Press. Manigault Newman is on a publicity tour for her book, which portrays Trump as mentally unfit and uninvolved with White House decisions. She also released covertly recorded audio from her time at the White House in which Trump said he didn’t know she had been fired. Those recordings could represent a breach of national security and a confidentiality agreement Manigault Newman acknowledged signing in 2016. She claimed to have other recordings, including one of Trump using a racial slur during their time together appearing on the NBC reality show The Apprentice.

The president claimed on Monday that no such tape existed, adding, “I don’t have that word in my vocabulary.” He followed up with a tweet on Tuesday about Manigault Newman’s tenure at the White House: “When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!”

White House chief of staff John Kelly fired Manigault Newman from her position as director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison in December 2017. The Trump campaign later offered her a job on the president’s reelection team that would have involved signing a nondisclosure agreement. Manigault Newman declined, describing the offer as hush money. White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told ABC News that all White House and campaign staff members sign nondisclosure agreements.