Omarosa Manigault Newman will have her legal fees covered after a judge tossed out Donald Trump’s lawsuit against her. Get the full story from Cheryl Teh at Business Insider below.
Omarosa Manigault Newman, an ex-Donald Trump aide turned Trump critic, was awarded more than $1.3 million for legal fees and costs stemming from a 2018 lawsuit former President Trump launched against her.
The American Arbitration Association handed down the judgmenton Tuesday.
The Trump campaign sued Manigault Newman in 2018, alleging that her 368-page exposé — “Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House” — amounted to the ex-aide breaking her non-disclosure agreement.
“Unhinged” was released after Manigault Newman — who first met Trump as a contestant on his reality TV show “The Apprentice” — was fired in December 2017 from her year-long stint in the Trump administration.
It contained numerous embarrassing anecdotes about Trump, including a story about how Manigault Newman once walked in on the former president eating a piece of paper in the Oval Office. In her memoir, Manigault Newman also accused Trump of uttering the “N-word” several times, claiming that there was a tape from the making of his reality TV show “The Apprentice” that could prove it.
Manigault Newman said in 2018 that she had a “treasure trove” of unflattering videos, emails, and texts about Trump and threatened to release them if he and his team continued to dispute the claimsshe made in her book.
In September 2021, Trump lost the three-year legal battle trying to enforce that nondisclosure agreement with Manigault Newman.
Tuesday’s judgment instructs the Trump campaign to pay Manigault Newman a total of $1,293,568.75 toward attorney’s fees and $17,304.73 for additional expenses , amounting to a total of $1,310,873.48. According to the filing, Manigault Newman initially asked to be awarded more than $3.4 million. The final award was based on the judge’s calculations of her lawyer’s billable hours.
“First-year law student vs. #45’s entire legal team. (David vs. Goliath) … … Now pardon me as I get back to studying for my Contract Law final exam,” Manigault Newman tweeted on Wednesday night in response to being awarded the sum.
In a statement to CNBC, Manigault Newman’s lawyer John Phillips said that the large sum of attorney fees award would hopefully “send a message that weaponized litigation will not be tolerated.” Phillips added that he hoped the ruling would “empower other lawyers to stand up and fight for the whistleblower and vocal critic against the oppressive machine.”
“We look forward to receiving a check and will donate a portion of the proceeds to groups who stand up to the suppression of speech,” Phillips told the outlet.
