Omarosa squares off with White House again, now alleges campaign pay discrimination

Well over a year after leaving the White House in a flurry of consternation and public drama, Omarosa Manigault Newman is now trying to join a pay discrimination lawsuit claiming that the Trump 2016 campaign underpaid female staffers, according to a story Monday by The Washington Post.

"While I strongly suspected I was subjected to pay discrimination while with the Trump Campaign, I have since seen expert analysis confirming this to be true," Manigault Newman said in a public statement. "The numbers don't lie."

The numbers she's referring to come from a study conducted by research firm Econ One's Philip Johnson, which surveyed 77 female and 151 staffers and claimed that Trump campaign female staffers were paid less than male counterparts between May and December 2016. That analysis is referenced in the plaintiff's court documents.

Specifically, Manigault Newman's legal declaration names former Trump for President deputy communications director Bryan Lanza as someone who "was paid more than me" even though his "work required substantially equal skill, effort, and responsibility as mine.

"After nearly 20 years inside the beltway, working for two White Houses and countless political campaigns, I've never witnessed such egregious violations as I did during my time under the leadership of Donald Trump and Mike Pence," her statement continues. "I am joining this effort for women and minorities to help level the playing field in the political arena between men and women. It is time for all of us to blow the whistle on the wrongdoings of this campaign."

The original pay discrimination lawsuit was filed by former campaign staffer Alva Johnson — who also alleges that Trump kissed her without consent at a campaign event in Florida. Monday's legal proceedings were designed to have the suit declared as a class action, thereby allowing others like Manigault Newman to join.

"This case is about two things: Donald Trump's predation, and his campaign's discrimination against women and people of color," reads a statement from Johnson's lead attorney, Hassan Zavareei, who also thinks that Manigault Newman's willingness to join the lawsuit will help his case. "If you have the president and his campaign discriminating against women … then that sets the tone for what happens in the commercial world and other sectors of government."

When Johnson first brought the suit and made the sexual misconduct allegations back in late February, the White House outright dismissed them.

"This accusation is absurd on its face," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. "This never happened and is directly contradicted by multiple highly credible eyewitness accounts."

Maginault Newman, the former Trump Campaign Director of African American Outreach and White House adviser left the White House in December 2017. Initial reports indicated that she had to be physically removed by security, but she later denied those.

Since then, Manigault Newman has also sparred with the West Wing over her book, "Unhinged," which Sanders said was "riddled with lies and false accusations."