President Trump’s campaign this week filed for arbitration against a 2016 campaign aide who claimed that the president forcibly kissed her without consent and disparaged him before dropping the case after a video of the incident showed that it was a peck on her cheek.
A source familiar with the matter told Secrets that on Monday, the Donald J. Trump for President Inc. campaign filed its claim against Alva Johnson, a 2016 Alabama outreach aide, for violating her confidentiality and nondisparagement agreement that the campaign has required staffers to sign.
The filing with the American Arbitration Association is focused on Johnson’s claims included in a U.S. District Court suit “and corresponding statements to the national news media,” said the source.
The campaign is seeking an unknown “financial restitution” from Johnson.
Her case was thrown out of court by a judge who called it a “political statement,” though both sides continued the legal fight until earlier this month when she dropped her suit.
The filing was meant as a signal to any other former Trump aides who may be considering violating nondisclosure and nondisparagement contracts in a bid to win money from the president.
It was last used against friend-turned-enemy Omarosa Manigault Newman. A year ago, the campaign filed an arbitration seeking “millions” after she took shots at Trump in a book.
In a February lawsuit, Johnson claimed that at an Aug. 24, 2016 rally in Tampa, Florida the president waited in an RV for rain to pass. During that time, she claimed he tried to catch her eye and eventually kissed her.
But a video released by Trump’s private lawyer, Charles Harder, showed what appeared to be a friendly kiss on her cheek.
He said in a challenge to Johnson’s suit that it was an “innocent interaction that is mutual — and not forcible.”
When she dropped her suit earlier this month, Johnson said, “I am facing a judge who openly questions whether the kiss is worthy of a federal lawsuit and has determined that Mr. Trump’s history of such behavior is not relevant, and I’ve endured on-going threats to my safety.”
Harder at the time said Johnson’s decision “represents total victory for President Trump, and fully vindicates him of Johnson’s false accusations.”
