Donald Trump's hush-money trial punctuates a "pattern of behavior," an ex-ally and employee of the former president said this week.
Omarosa Manigault Newman, director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison under the Trump administration, appeared on CNN's Newsroom with Jim Acosta where she discussed the former president's ongoing criminal trial in New York in which he's accused of concealing hush money paid to former adult-film star Stormy Daniels.
During one point of her appearance, Omarosa was asked by Acosta if she was ever offered a "hush money of sorts" following her departure from the White House.
"As I wrote in my book Unhinged, certainly there was an offer from Lara Trump specifically, for, I believe it was $20,000 a month so that I would not talk about the things that I observed or that I experienced in the campaign and apparently this was common practice," Omarosa said. "It's very clear to me this is a pattern of behavior that Donald uses in order to keep silent along with those NDAs [non-disclosure agreements]."
On Monday, Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan entered its fourth week, following the April 2023 indictment by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Bragg's indictment alleges that Trump "fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information—including a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels—from the public during the 2016 presidential campaign." Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records tied to the Daniels payment.
Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has continued to deny any wrongdoing in the case, while also repeatedly criticizing a gag order imposed on him.
During the trial on Monday, New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, threatened Trump with jail time if he continues to violate the gag order. Trump was found in violation of the order on nine separate occasions last week and Merchan announced a 10th violation this week.
"I do not want to impose a jail sanction and have done everything I can to avoid doing so. But I will if necessary," Merchan said.
Shortly afterward, Trump spoke to reporters, saying, "Our Constitution is much more important than jail. It's not even close. I'll do that sacrifice any day."
During Omarosa's appearance on Newsroom, she also discussed Trump's gag order violations, saying: "I'm kind of with the judge with him taking a restrained approach to punishing Donald because Donald has already calculated the punishment in his campaign strategy."
"I believe that he wants to be locked up, even for a short amount of time, so that he can be a martyr and he can use it for fundraising," Newman said.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's spokesperson for comment via email on Wednesday.
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Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
