Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday to discuss the scathing allegations she has levied against President Trump in her new book, Unhinged: An Insider’s Account Of The Trump White House, but frequently declined to elaborate on her charges.
The former Trump aide claims she was fired from the administration because White House chief of staff John Kelly knew she was close to obtaining a recording of Trump using the N-word. Manigualt Newman says she has listened to the tape, but, as of Tuesday, there is no evidence such a tape exists.
Manigault Newman’s interview Tuesday was packed with statements that could, if true, be troubling for the Trump administration.
Asked whether or not the president knew that WikiLeaks was going to release hacked emails from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign ahead of time, Manigault Newman said the president was “absolutely” aware the emails were dropping. The claim is significant in the context of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Mueller has issued an indictment that alleges Russian intelligence agents transferred emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee to WikiLeaks, who then slowly released batches of emails leading up to Election Day.
[Trump: Omarosa a ‘dog,’ a ‘crazed, crying lowlife’]
Pressed for more details regarding Trump’s prior knowledge of the release, Manigault Newman refused to give more details, directing MSNBC to consult with the White House.
MSNBC asked Manigault Newman if the president had a “back channel” to WikiLeaks, but she dodged the question.
“I didn’t say that, you did. But I will say I am going to expose the corruption that went on in the campaign and in the White House. I’m going to continue to blow the whistle on all of that,” Manigault Newman said.
The former Trump aide also said she has already sat down for an interview with Mueller’s team.
“There is a lot of corruption that went on both in the campaign and the White House. I am going to blow the whistle on all of it. I am very interested in exposing what was happening behind the scenes,” Manigault Newman said.
Manigault Newman would not say whether she has appeared before a grand jury in Mueller’s investigation.
“Unfortunately, I can’t elaborate,” she said.
She added that the White House should be “very worried” about Mueller’s investigation, arguing that the administration has been “hiding things from the American people and being very dishonest.”
Sources close to the White House told ABC Tuesday after Manigault Newman’s interview that the team working with Mueller’s office never had her on their interview list. The sources also said that the former Trump aide was never requested to speak with Mueller’s team while she was an employee of the White House.
Manigault Newman left the White House in late December 2017. It is unclear whether or not she was interviewed by Mueller’s team after she departed the White House.
Hours before Manigault Newman’s interview Tuesday, Trump’s campaign announced it filed arbitration against her, alleging she violated a 2016 nondisclosure agreement when she published her book.
The former Trump aide told MSNBC that she does not “believe” she violated the nondisclosure.
Asked whether or not she has more recordings of the president and members of his staff, Manigault Newman would not give a definitive answer.
“I think he should be afraid of being exposed as the misogynist, the bigot and the racist that he is,” she said.
