President Trump has been busy today – alternating between tweets about just-fired FBI agent Peter Strzok, and former White House aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman who was fired in December over “integrity issues,” and has just released two secret recordings of both her firing by White House chief of staff John Kelly, and a subsequent phone call with Trump.
Omarosa’s new disclosures have been timed with the release of her new book, Unhinged. The former Apprentice contestant appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd on Sunday where she dropped the Kelly recording – only to turn around and released a phone call with Trump in which he says he didn’t know she was fired.
What’s more – Omarosa was caught in a lie about whether she heard President Trump use the N-word – claiming in her new book that someone told her pollster Frank Luntz heard Trump say it, which Luntz denied, while later telling NPR that she personally heard Trump say it.
Following the release of the second recording – Manigault-Newman’s second, President Trump hit back, tweeting: “Wacky Omarosa, who got fired 3 times on the Apprentice, now got fired for the last time. She never made it, never will. She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok,” adding “People in the White House hated her. She was vicious, but not smart.”
“Nasty to people & would constantly miss meetings & work. When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems. I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me – until she got fired!”
Wacky Omarosa, who got fired 3 times on the Apprentice, now got fired for the last time. She never made it, never will. She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok. People in the White House hated her. She was vicious, but not smart. I would rarely see her but heard….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018
…really bad things. Nasty to people & would constantly miss meetings & work. When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems. I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me – until she got fired!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018
And in his latest tweet on the subject, Trump hinted that Omarosa may have some legal issues, writing “Wacky Omarosa already has a fully signed Non-Disclosure Agreement!”
Wacky Omarosa already has a fully signed Non-Disclosure Agreement!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018
This is the NDA that Omarosa Manigault Newman claims she received after leaving the White House pic.twitter.com/k7DtoQ3myw
— Edward Hardy (@EdwardTHardy) August 13, 2018
In response, never-Trump Neoconservative Bill Kristol asked “What legal authority permitted you to direct White House Counsel to try to secure such unprecedented agreements with respect to non-classified information from government employees?“
What legal authority permitted you to direct White House Counsel to try to secure such unprecedented agreements with respect to non-classified information from government employees? Was the attempt to pressure them into signing NDAs not itself illegal? https://t.co/mYP7EOKU0y
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) August 13, 2018
We assume Kristol made the comment after discussing with an attorney, but who knows. Journalist Michael Warren at the Kristol-co-founded Weekly Standard wrote in March when NDAs were rumored to have been signed in the West Wing:
But there are reasons to be skeptical of the NDAs—either of their existence entirely or that many in the Trump White House who signed them believed in their enforceability. Marcus herself considers some of these reasons, including the First Amendment violations of White House aides held to any such contracts. And who was party to the NDAs? Trump himself? The office of the president? The federal government? Any answer would be problematic to enforcing the contracts if and when a dispute ended up in court.
There’s also the fact that unauthorized leaks have more or less continued at the same pace over the last year. People in the White House talk to reporters frequently and without apparent fear of reprisal. The very idea of an NDA in the White House is, as one lawyer interviewed by Marcus said, “crazy.” –Weekly Standard
Speaking with a crowd on Saturday, President Trump called Manigault-Newman a “lowlife” when asked if he felt betrayed by the former aide. White House staff, meanwhile, have slammed Omarosa as a “disgruntled former White House employee” trying to “profit off these false attacks.”
If the NDA isn’t enforceable, we wonder if Omarosa’s prior statements about Trump will be “exhibit A”?
Omarosa stated 2 years ago how she knows the President personally and that he is not a racist. Wonder how much money it took for him to start being racist in her interviews and book? Zero credibility. @realDonaldTrump @WhiteHouse #MAGA #QANON https://t.co/iLV9Qj1LsH
— RaeRae (@RaeRaeAwake) August 13, 2018
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