[griojw id=”bjVUmzmK” playerid=”GqX43ZoG”]
Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman has filed a motion this week requesting to join a lawsuit accusing the Trump campaign of gender pay discrimination.
NBC News reports that Manigault-Newman, who first became linked to Donald Trump while a contestant on his reality show The Apprentice, now claims she was paid “significantly less” than her male counterparts while working on his 2016 presidential campaign.
READ MORE: Omarosa claims Trump team destroyed boxes of evidence relevant to the Mueller probe
“To hear there were so many other women who got paid 20 percent less across the board, I’m talking about on the state level, the local level and national level … I wanted to join the efforts,” she told MSNBC.
“The numbers don’t lie,” Manigualt-Newman continued. “The data is there, right there for public consumption.”
The 45 year old alleges she was paid $7,000 a month during her time on the campaign while her male colleague earned $11,000 a month for doing the same work. She says other women staffers who had “more experience and more education,” were also paid less as well.
READ MORE: Omarosa says ‘End of Donald Trump’ possible if one particular person were convinced to sing
The former aide had no idea there was a pay disparity until her lawyer brought it to her attention. Her filing specifically names Bryan Lanza, who was not only the former “Trump for President” deputy communications director but also the Trump Transition Team communications director. Manigualt-Newman points out that while his work “required substantially equal skill, effort, and responsibility” as hers, he was compensated with higher pay.
Substantiating that claim is a report from The Daily Beast confirming FEC filings show Manigault-Newman was paid $28,000 for two months of work, while Lanza received $62,000 for just three months of consulting work.
READ MORE: DC360 with Tiffany Cross | Omarosa Manigault Newman supports lawsuit against Donald Trump
“While I strongly suspected I was subjected to pay discrimination while with the Trump campaign, I have since seen expert analysis confirming this to be true,” the campaign’s former director of African-American outreach said in a statement. And she has every intention of suing her old mentor for what she’s owed.
“I am joining this effort for women and minorities to help level the playing field in the political arena between men and women,” she concluded. “It is time for all of us to blow the whistle on the wrongdoings of this campaign.”