The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is considering using legal instruments to penalise Omarosa Manigault-Newman, Trump’s former aide, to prevent her releasing a recording she made in the White House Situation Room to the general public.
On Sunday, Manigault-Newman played the recording of her firing by the White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, during an interview for the NBC broadcaster.
The White House spokesperson, Sarah Sanders, slammed Manigault-Newman’s move by calling it a “blatant disregard for our national security” since bringing a recording device into the Situation Room is prohibited.
Many Trump administration officials feared that their ex-colleague would release their private conversations as well, the ABC News broadcaster reported.
“It’s an unbelievable violation of protocol and the law. You can lose your security clearance for bringing your device into SCIF – to bring it in is a violation but to willfully record it – you’re entering a whole other realm,” former White House spokesman Sean Spicer told the broadcaster.
Manigault-Newman’s interview was held ahead of the release of her memoir “Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House,” which is expected to take place on Tuesday.
As excerpts of the book have been circulating in the media, tensions between Trump and his ex-aide have mounted.
Media reported on Sunday, citing the book, that Manigault-Newman called the U.S. president a “racist, misogynist and bigot.” Trump, in turn, called Manigault-Newman a “lowlife.”
Manigault-Newman appeared in Trump’s TV show The Apprentice in 2004.
Between January and December 2017, she worked in the presidential administration.
After her resignation, media suggested that Manigault-Newman had been forced to quit her job rather than decided to leave herself. (Sputnik/NAN)