Omarosa will not able to depose Trump, John Kelly, judge rules
The former Trump ally will not be allowed to call any member of the White House counsel's office to testify.
Omarosa Manigault Newman will not be allowed to call members of the White House counsel to testify as she continues her legal battle with the former administration.
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According to The Hill, Judge Richard Leon of the Washington D.C. district court denied Newman’s request to call Trump, or former Trump chief of staff, John Kelly. In June 2019, a lawsuit was filed against Manigault Newman for failure to file a financial disclosure form after she left her role as Director of Communications in the Office of Public Liaison.
The judge ruled she “knowingly and willingly” failed to file her report within 30 days of leaving. For almost a year, attempts were made to contact the former employee with no response, according to the publication.
“A party attempting to depose a high-ranking official must demonstrate ‘extraordinary circumstances’ requiring such deposition,” Leon wrote The Hill reported. Despite Manigault Newman’s argument that neither party is currently in office, Leon still denied her request, ruling that his referral is “irrelevant” to her case.
Manigault Newman claimed Trump referred her case to the Department of Justice in an effort to retaliate against her personally and said she “was justified in deposing him,” according to The Hill.
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theGrio reported The Trump administration announced the inquiry into the former staffer only after Manigault Newman announced her best-selling book, Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House.
According to the report, her book announcement was made on July 26, 2018, and on July 27, email communication began “regarding authorization to communicate with the Office of the White House Counsel and discussing options for whether a lawsuit should be filed or not.”
The memoir, released in August 2018, ultimately placed the former reality star in the No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list.
“This was weaponization of a lawsuit by the White House for retaliation for writing a book — for saying offensive words about Mr. Trump,” said John Phillips, a lawyer for Manigault Newman. “This doesn’t just reek of retaliation; it is fairly provable to be retaliation, which violates the First Amendment.”
The Department of Justice is seeking up to $50,000 against Manigault Newman.
The Justice Department dropped a lawsuit against Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, another former White House affiliate, who faced legal action after releasing a book. theGrio reported Wolkoff, a volunteer aide to former first lady Melania Trump, wrote a tell-all book titled Melania and Me.
Originally, the suit said she violated a nondisclosure agreement.
According to the report, “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.”
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