ABC News reported Sunday that officials in the Trump administration are exploring all legal options as they desperately try to stop former Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman from releasing any more audio recordings she made while working for the president. Many people were shocked when she revealed over the weekend that she had secretly recorded her discussions with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in the Situation Room, which is supposed to be a top secret area.
The White House reportedly wants to not only prevent Manigault Newman from releasing any more tapes but also punish her for making public the audio recording she played for host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday morning. She told Todd that the recording of her discussion with Kelly was made when he fired her in December of 2017.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement to the press on Sunday saying that the “very idea a staff member would sneak a recording device into the White House Situation Room, shows a blatant disregard for our national security. And then to brag about it on national television further proves the lack of character and integrity of this disgruntled former White House employee.”
After the recording in the Situation Room was made public it created a furor among many knowledgeable people, including journalists, national security experts and former White House employees. It was widely agreed that making recordings of conversations in the Situation Room could pose a real threat to national security. It is considered an extremely sensitive location, and all phones and electronic devices are prohibited there for security reasons.
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer called Manigault Newman’s taping “a massive violation of security protocol.”
“She taped the chief of staff for the White House in the Situation Room, clearly a violation of every security protocol that she signed when she applied for a security clearance,” Spicer said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Manigault Newman worked in the White House as an assistant to President Trump and director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison. She released the audio recording as part of her ongoing promotional tour for her book “Unhinged: An Insider Account of the Trump White House” which is scheduled to be released tomorrow.
Excerpts of the explosive memoir were released earlier this week some of which made claims about Trump’s frequent use of racial slurs. She also claimed that Kelly fired her after he discovered that she was making audio recordings of Trump using racial slurs.
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