DOJ Sues Omarosa, Scheming Former Adviser May Have To Fork Over $50K
Now she’s really got something to get “unhinged” about.
Former White House adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman has built a career based on a public image of a scheming, ruthless rogue who doesn’t have to follow the rules — someone unafraid to use any tactic to achieve her goals.
But one bill, at least, is coming due — and it could be a big one.
The Justice Department on Tuesday filed a $50,000 lawsuit against Manigault Newman alleging she had failed to file the financial disclosures required by law after she lost her job at the White House, according to CNBC.
According to The Washington Post, the lawsuit maintains Manigault Newman violated the Ethics in Government Act when she failed to file the financial report within 30 days of her dismissal from the Trump White House in December 2017.
Manigault Newman ignored instructions seven more times to comply with the requirement, the lawsuit states, according to The Post.
Now, the facts of the matter haven’t been fully established yet, and Manigault Newman’s lawyer says the suit is unwarranted. But it’s worth noting that defiance of the rules everybody else has to follow might come more naturally to Manigault Newman than it does to most people.
Her first taste of fame came from her appearance in 2004 on the debut season of the Donald Trump reality show “The Apprentice.” There, as The Post put it, she was known for “playing a villain who would undercut her competitors to win.”
And Manigault Newman, who didn’t exactly distinguish herself as a team player in her first White House experience during the Clinton years, appeared to bring that ruthless “Apprentice” ethos to Trump White House in 2017, judging by the book she published afterward.
Titled “Unhinged,” it depicted Trump as a racist who was mentally unfit for the presidency. But the credibility of the book took some serious hits from even longtime friends of Manigault Newman.
Her claim that there was a tape — somewhere, anywhere — of Trump using the N-word was a major theme of the book. Unfortunately for Manigault Newman, it was a theme that wasn’t backed up — even by her friends.
Now, a full year-and-a-half after her abrupt dismissal from the Trump White House, she apparently still hasn’t filed a financial report that was due within a month of leaving the job, according to The Post.
In a statement, Manigault Newman’s attorney blamed the White House for withholding documents his client needs to complete the forms.
“We requested an extension until her documents could be returned,” he said, according to The Post.
“We will pick up these materials immediately and have requested same repeatedly. Omarosa Manigault Newman cannot even get a straight answer about the amount of materials wrongfully possessed.”
Maybe.
Maybe the Justice Department really is vindictive enough — and foolish enough — to file a $50,000 lawsuit against a former White House staffer for not filling out the right paperwork when the White House itself is making it impossible for her to do so, just to make her look bad.
But it’s a fair bet that no one in Washington — in the Trump White House or out of it — is so naïve as to think there would not be mainstream media sympathy for Manigault Newman, a notorious anti-Trump figure who was lionized by liberals as soon as she viciously turned on her longtime benefactor.
Manigault Newman has spent a career building a reputation as a schemer. It will be interesting to see if she can scheme her way out of a $50,000 lawsuit.
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