The Memo: Omarosa beats Trump, potentially opening flood gates
Manigault Newman’s victory could embolden others who signed NDAs with Trump. The former White House staffer says that’s already happening.
She told this column in a Tuesday evening phone conversation that “people have been reaching out even in the last 24 hours wanting to tell their stories and wanting to consult with my legal team.”
The attorneys who worked on her case agreed.
The implications of the arbitrator’s findings should be “scary” for Trump, according to Manigault Newman’s lead attorney, John Phillips.
He added that he believed the wording of Manigault Newman’s NDA was essentially the same as for many other former Trump staffers.
“I believe it is effectively over for this NDA,” Phillips said.
J. Wyndal Gordon, a trial lawyer also on Manigault Newman’s team, said: “There are many others who signed this agreement and have, to their knowledge, been bound to some secrecy because they were afraid of the wrath of Mr. Trump. However, this case really frees a lot of those who really wanted to have something to say but felt muted” by the NDA.
Manigault Newman was fired from her White House role by then chief of staff
John Kelly in 2017 and the following year published a book titled “Unhinged.” Among other details, she alleged that Trump was bigoted and mentally diminished. Soon after the book was published, Trump’s campaign filed the arbitration action.
At around the same time, Trump savaged Manigault Newman on Twitter, referring to her as a “dog” and a “lowlife.”
But the New York arbitrator said the provisions of the NDA could not stand up because they were so “vague and indefinite.”
The arbitrator, T. Andrew Brown, added, “There is no way here to tell if a breach has occurred, since the determination of whether there is a breach is left to the sole determination of Mr. Trump.”
The former president may in part be sore because his campaign is now on the hook to pay the costs and legal fees for Manigault Newman — fees that are bound to be substantial given the length of the case.
“Everything I learned in the boardroom from ‘The Apprentice’ to the Oval Office, I was able to apply in this situation,” Manigault Newman said. “I was able to be victorious and now he has to pay potentially millions in legal fees and costs.”
Asked about future Trump presidential ambitions, she is scathing.
"Donald is threatening to run again, not because he wants to make the country better or to strengthen our democracy. Simply put, he wants revenge,” she said.
Phillips, her lead lawyer, pays tribute to her courage in seeing the legal action through.
Former President Trump may face a new torrent of unfavorable revelations from former staffers after erstwhile “Apprentice” star and ex-White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman won a key victory in…
thehill.com