Omarosa says she has tapes of Lara Trump badmouthing first family, claims she was offered money to keep silent
American reality television show participant, writer, and former political aide to President Donald Trump, Omarosa Manigault Newman, who is often mononymously known as Omarosa, revealed she has multiple “secret tapes” of Eric Trump’s wife Lara allegedly badmouthing the first family. Omarosa revealed all of this to Michael Cohen (the former attorney and personal fixer for President Trump) on his podcast ‘Mea Culpa’. In a clip of the podcast audio, which has not yet been aired, obtained exclusively by the Daily Mail, Omarosa said: “Let's be clear, I have Lara badmouthing Ivanka, I have Lara badmouthing Donald, I have Lara badmouthing Melania.”
She further said, “The reason why Lara doesn't say much about me is because if she recalls all the conversations we had, particularly when we were on the Women for Trump bus, she was saying some things that I think the family would be quite interested in,” referring to the Trump campaign's national Women for Trump bus tour during the 2016 election campaign, which was aimed at gathering support among women for Trump's run for the White House.
Omarosa further said, “When I left the White House, I did a couple of interviews and I made it very clear that I had observed things that were very disturbing, and I was very interested in sharing those things. And very shortly, after those interviews, was when Lara called me to try to, in fact, buy my silence. Whatever it was she thought I was going to share, it disturbed her enough to call me and to make that offer.”
“And she was explicit: ‘We will pay you this money but you can't be saying those things, those bad things’,” said Omarosa, adding that Lara was “all over the place”, and suggested someone had “coached” her. “She said you can't say those things, it sounds like you have something in your back pocket.”
Cohen, in the podcast, asked Omarosa if she thought Trump was using her to silence his critics who had branded him a racist. Omarosa, who is a Black woman, said, “Donald Trump uses everyone, I don't think I'm unique in the equation, I think that he's exploited you (Cohen), I think he's exploited the evangelicals, I think he's exploited Black Christians and supporters. He uses everyone and everything is so transactional for him. So I'm not going to personalize this, I knew Donald Trump long before the campaign and so when I had that opportunity… to serve in that way then yes. I had one of the most unique relationships in terms of an African-American woman, because as you stated, there were no other options for people to serve.”
She added, “In some ways I guess, I blame myself for just not seeing the things that are so clear now back then, really was the biggest factor as to how I became part of that craziness.”
In December, 2017, Omarosa was fired by Gen. John Kelly, Trump’s chief of staff. Even though a White House statement said that she had resigned her position “to pursue other opportunities,” effective January 20, 2018, adding, “We wish her the best in future endeavors and are grateful for her service,” there were reports that she was “physically dragged and escorted off the campus.”
Omarosa secretly recorded Kelly as he fired her in the Situation Room. On the recording, Kelly said Omarosa could be facing “pretty significant legal issues” over what he alleged was misuse of a government car. She denied misusing it. “I’d like to see this be a friendly departure,” Kelly said on the tape. “There are pretty significant legal issues that we hope don’t develop into something that -- that’ll make it ugly for you. But I think it’s important to understand that if we make this a friendly departure, we can all be, you know, you can look at, look at your time here in, in the White House as a year of service to the nation. And then you can go on without any type of difficulty in the future relative to your reputation.”