Omarosa Says Trumps Offered Her $15,000 a Month for Her ‘Silence’

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump offered former aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman $15,000 a month to work for the president’s 2020 campaign after she was fired from the White House, according to a recording she released on MSNBC on Thursday.

“I saw this as an attempt to buy my silence, to censor me and to pay me off,” Manigault-Newman said in an interview on the network.

The recording captures Lara Trump offering to pay Manigault-Newman roughly the same amount she earned as a White House staffer -- about $180,000 a year -- if she joined Trump’s campaign. Manigault-Newman was fired by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in December.

On the recording, Lara Trump references a New York Times article indicating that Manigault-Newman has something negative to say about the president.

“It sounds a little like, obviously, that there are some things you’ve got in the back pocket to pull out,” Lara Trump says on the recording. “Clearly, if you come on board the campaign, like, we can’t have--” she says, before being interrupted by Manigault-Newman, who says “Oh, God no.”

“Everything, everybody, positive, right?” Lara Trump continued.

Manigault-Newman said Lara Trump “was very specific that it was DJT” -- using the president’s initials -- “that wanted her to make that offer for me.”

Lara Trump said in a statement that Manigault-Newman was offered a job on the campaign because the Trump family “had no idea about the basis of her dismissal” from the White House. Discussions about a campaign job occurred during “numerous phone calls over the course of several weeks,” she said.

“We still wanted her on our team because we cared so much about her personally,” she said. “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 that during the president’s 2016 campaign, she and Manigault-Newman “formed a sisterhood bond that is unlike any I have experienced in my life.”

“We never would have imagined that one of our own was secretly recording all of our private conversations,” she said. “I am absolutely shocked and saddened by her betrayal and violation on a deeply personal level.”

“I hope it’s all worth it for you, Omarosa, because some things you just can’t put a price on,” she added.

To contact the reporter on this story: Toluse Olorunnipa in Washington at tolorunnipa@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Joshua Gallu

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