August 16, 2018

New Omarosa Tape Appears to Back Claim She Was Offered $15,000 a Month to Stay Quiet

Cheriss May/ZUMA

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A new secret recording released by Omarosa Manigault Newman on Thursday appears to show President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law offering the former White House aide a $15,000-a-month job shortly after she was fired last December. Manigault Newman told NBC that the recording demonstrates the Trump campaign’s effort to buy her silence and prevent her from speaking out against the president.

The clip, which raises concerns of possible campaign finance violations, marks the fourth recording released by Manigault Newman this week as she promotes Unhinged, a memoir recounting her brief tenure at the White House, where she was reportedly paid a $179,000 salary.

“It sounds a little like, obviously, that there are some things you’ve got in the back pocket to pull out,” Lara Trump can be heard saying in the phone conversation, which did not include details of what the $15,000-a-month job would require. She adds, “Clearly if you come on board the campaign, we can’t have…” before Manigault Newman interrupts. 

“I saw this as an attempt to buy my silence, to censor me and to pay me off, $15,000 per month by the campaign,” Manigault Newman told NBC’s Craig Melvin on Thursday.

Manigault Newman debuted the first recording on Sunday and has since unveiled a new recording every day except for Wednesday. 

The steady trickle of recordings this week has deeply angered Trump, who lashed out Tuesday by calling his former aide “that dog” and a “crying lowlife.” Many condemned the president’s use of racist and sexist insults against a black woman who had been hired to serve in one of the highest positions inside the White House.

The vicious insults came as Trump denied the narrative behind Manigault Newman’s most explosive recording yet, which purports to feature Trump campaign aides discussing how to spin an Apprentice outtake, should it ever become public, that has long been rumored to reveal Trump saying the N-word.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

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