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Omarosa Manigault Newman and Donald Trump during a press conference that followed Trump's meeting with African-American religious leaders in New York in December 2015. Photo: AFP

Donald Trump’s campaign sues Omarosa hours after president calls her ‘that dog’

The Trump campaign accuses Manigault Newman of breaching a 2016 non-disclosure agreement

Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump’s campaign has reportedly filed for arbitration with his former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, accusing her of breaching a 2016 non-disclosure agreement just hours after Trump escalated a bitter row by publicly praising his chief of staff, John Kelly, for “quickly firing that dog”.

Manigault Newman, a former adviser to the US president and contestant on the reality TV show The Apprentice, has released three secret recordings related to her firing as she promotes her memoir, Unhinged.

In a statement to CNN on Tuesday, Trump’s campaign said that it had “filed an arbitration against Omarosa Manigault Newman, with the American Arbitration Association in New York City, for breach of her 2016 confidentiality agreement with the Trump Campaign”.

It is the first legal action the campaign has launched since Manigault Newman revealed details in her tell-all book about her time as a Trump campaign adviser and senior White House aide.

Her TV appearances, and her claim to have heard a tape of Trump using the N-word and other racial slurs during filming for The Apprentice, have annoyed the president, who levelled another barrage of attacks at her on Tuesday.

“When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!” he tweeted.

On Tuesday morning, Manigault Newman revealed a third tape on CBS News that she said contains a copy of a 2016 conference call among Trump campaign aides discussing how to address potential fallout from the release of tapes that allegedly show Trump using the N-word. The campaign aides had previously denied that any such conversations took place.

In the recording, then-campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson can be heard saying: “I am trying to find at least what context it was used in to help us maybe try to figure out a way to spin it.”

‘Unhinged’, the new tell-all book by former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, is for sale in Washington on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Lynne Patton, who was then an assistant to Trump’s son, Eric Trump, says on the recording that she discussed the remark with Trump. “I said, ‘Well, sir, can you think of anytime where this happened?’ And he said, ‘no,’” Patton can be heard saying.

“Well, that’s not true,” Manigault Newman says, before continuing: “He goes, how do you think I should handle it and I told him exactly what you just said, Omarosa, which is well, it depends on what scenario you are talking about. And he said, well, why don’t you just go ahead and put it to bed.”

“He said it. No, he said it. He is embarrassed,” Pierson says.

On Monday, Trump denied claims of racism and said Manigault Newman was a liar for claiming he used the N-word: “I don’t have that word in my vocabulary and never have. She made it up.”

But on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said when asked that she could not “guarantee” that Trump had never used the N-word.

“I can’t guarantee anything,” she said. “I can tell you that I’ve never heard it.”

She continued: “Look, I haven’t been in every room. I think if you look at the actions that this president has taken, certainly the policies that he’s enacted, you can see the heart of who he is. And you can see exactly what he has done and the type of president and person he is.”

US White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is seen on Tuesday in the daily briefing; she said in the meeting that she could not ‘guarantee’ that Trump had never used the N-word. Photo: Reuters

When Kelly fired Manigault Newman in December in the White House Situation Room, she secretly taped it, in an apparent breach of security protocol.

In the recording, which she played on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Kelly told Manigault Newman the firing was the result of “significant integrity issues” and that she could face damage to her reputation if she did not make it a “friendly departure”.

On Monday, Manigault Newman released another recording in which Trump appeared to express surprise that she had been fired.

“Omarosa? Omarosa, what’s going on? I just saw on the news that you’re thinking about leaving? What happened?” Trump says on the tape, played on NBC’s Today show.

Manigault Newman says she has been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating Russian election interference. She did not say when she was interviewed and declined to provide any other details.

Appearing on MSNBC on Tuesday, Manigault Newman also declined to say whether she has been called to sit before a grand jury.

Omarosa Manigault Newman and US President Donald Trump during a meeting on African American History Month in Washington in February last year. Photo: AP

“I feel like my hands are tied because as you know I do love to communicate about the things that are going on in my life, but unfortunately I can’t elaborate,” she said.

When asked if she has secretly taped audio recordings that would be of interest to Mueller, she said: “If he calls me, I certainly will participate with anything that he needs.”

Additional reporting by Associated Press

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