Biden’s DOJ continues financial disclosure lawsuit against Omarosa
Manigault Newman calls the suit a retaliation
Omarosa Manigault Newman is still facing a lawsuit with the Justice Department.
All eyes were on the former White House aide after she spoke out against Donald Trump and the White House, post her abrupt firing in 2017. Her legal troubles are due to her failure to file a required financial disclosure, per Politico.
Manigault Newman is being asked to pay $61,585 for failing to file financial disclosure records. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon is presiding over the case.
Read More: Omarosa says Trump is having a ‘psychotic episode’ over election loss
“She…made no attempt to file any Termination Report before September 2019, more than a year and a half after it was due and after this litigation was commenced,” wrote DOJ lawyers in a brief filed Thursday.
“Then, following that submission—in which only half the required fields were even filled out—Defendant made no effort for over a year to correct her submission, despite being promptly advised of its deficiencies…She remains out of compliance with [the Ethics in Government Act] to this day.”
But the suit is very rare, and in most cases, is cleared up when the forms are updated. At times a small fee is required.
Last week, the Justice Department dropped a lawsuit against Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, volunteer aide to former first lady Melania Trump. The former aide, who is white, wrote a tell-all book titled Melania and Me. The suit said she violated a nondisclosure agreement, but the DOJ dropped the case.
They claim “The Department evaluated the case and concluded that dismissal without prejudice was in the best interests of the United States based on the facts and the law.”
Manigault Newman also wrote a tell-all titled Unhinged, about her time in the White House. She also released audio of then-White House chief of staff John Kelly who encouraged her to quit quietly so she “can go on without any kind of difficulty relative to her reputation.”
Read More: Woman with loaded gun and letter for Biden arrested near White House
Manigault Newman argues that White House staff prohibited her from obtaining the paperwork she needed to file the documents properly after she was fired. She claims the suit is retaliation for being a government whistleblower.
Her attorney John Phillips, plans to fight the filing.
“I just can’t understand how they can argue, in any good faith whatsoever, that depriving her of her boxes and depriving her of accurate information, can in any way be constituted willful non-compliance by Omarosa until those issues are remedied,” said Phillips.
“Add to this all of the relevant dates of referrals, tweets, and email exchanges, and this was clearly retaliatory. Further, other officials were not similarly referred,” he concluded.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!
