Thursday on MSNBC’s “Live,” former White House staffer and “Apprentice” contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman released a secret recording of campaign official Lara Trump offering her a $15,000-a-month job after Manigault Newman was fired from the Trump administration.
Manigault Newman said the recording was made a few days after her firing on December 16, 2017.
Lara Trump says, “It sounds a little like, obviously, that there are some things you’ve got in the back pocket to pull out. Clearly, if you come on board the campaign, like, we can’t have, we got to—”
Manigault Newman interjected, “Oh, God no.”
Trump continued, “Everything, everybody, positive, right?”
In another excerpt, Lara Trump says, “So the only thing that we have to consider, where we’re talking salary, as far as the campaign is concerned is that, as you know, everything is public. And that all the money that we raise and that pays salaries is directly from donors, small-dollar donors for the most part. So, I know you, you were making 179 at the White House. And I think we can work something out where we keep you right along those lines. Specifically, let me see, I haven’t even added up the numbers. But we were talking about, like, 15K a month. Let me see what that adds up to. Times 12. Yeah. Does that sound like a fair deal for you?”
In another edited excerpt, Lara Trump says, “In terms of your position, specifically, I really feel like your position would require, you know, you to be able to be flexible in terms of where you are. Sometimes, you know, come to New York for occasional meetings. But I would love, if you could, you know, occasionally go do speaking engagements and that sort of thing for us. I think you’d be awesome doing that. So it doesn’t really matter where you are. If you’re comfortable staying in D.C., then, you know, you’re, we’re more than happy to have you.”
When asked by Melvin if she saw it as hush money, Manigault Newman said, “Absolutely.”
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