Omarosa’s $15K-Per-Month Hush Money Offer Could Get Donald Trump In Hot Water
Omarosa Manigault-Newman claims she was offered $15,000 per month in hush money after leaving the White House, but now the former reality television star is speaking freely about her time working for Donald Trump — who could now be in hot water for the offer to Omarosa.
The former star of The Apprentice wrote in a new book that after deciding to leave the Trump White House, she was offered the large monthly payment to stay quiet about what she saw and learned during her time there. As the Washington Post reported, Omarosa claimed that she received a call from Donald’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who offered her the $15,000-per-month payment.
The agreement would have forbidden Omarosa from making comments about Donald Trump or his family, or Vice President Mike Pence or his family, as well as any comment that could damage the president. Omarosa said she turned it down, saying the NDA was “as harsh and restrictive as any I’d seen in all my years of television.”
The allegation has critics taking aim at Donald Trump, saying that the payment coming from his campaign would constitute an illegal campaign contribution.
This is not the first time that Trump has been accused of improperly using campaign money to keep secrets about him under wraps. That is the crux of the investigation surrounding adult film star Stormy Daniels, who received a payment to remain quiet about an alleged relationship she had with Donald Trump. Former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal also received a payment to keep quiet about a relationship she allegedly had with Trump at the same time.
As NPR noted, the watchdog group Common Cause has questioned whether these payments constitute illegal campaign violations.
“Two violations – number one, that the Trump campaign committee failed to disclose to the Federal Election Commission and to the public the payment to Stormy Daniels, which – because it was for the purpose of influencing the election, it was an expenditure under campaign finance law,” said Paul Ryan, the group’s vice president of policy and litigation.
“And then violation number two or possible violation number two is dependent on the source of the funds. If this money came from Michael Cohen, for example – we now know it did, at least initially – that’s an illegally large in-kind contribution to the Trump campaign – so undisclosed, unreported campaign finance activity and too much money from Michael Cohen to the Team Trump.”
Stormy Daniels got $130,000. Karen McDougal got $150,000. Now Omarosa says Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump offered her $15,000/month (that would be $180,000/year) in hush money to sign an NDA to keep quiet about Trump. https://t.co/3zogaSFuPr
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) August 10, 2018
Donald Trump has denied offering the hush money payment to Omarosa, with White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying that the reality television star’s book is filled with lies.
