Omarosa Manigault-Newman, the former Trump campaign and White House aide promoting a tell-all book, claims President Trump had advance knowledge that stolen Clinton emails existed and would be made public.
She made the allegation during an interview that aired on MSNBC Tuesday afternoon, saying that Trump “absolutely” knew about the emails before they were released by WikiLeaks. She also said campaign officials were instructed to bring up the emails at every point they could during the end of the campaign.
U.S. officials have linked the hacked emails to a broader plot by Russia to interfere in the election.
When asked by the reporter whether she was implying Trump had a back channel to WikiLeaks, Omarosa replied, “I didn’t say that, you did.”
“I will say that I am going to expose the corruption that went on in the campaign and in the White House,” Manigault-Newman added.
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On Tuesday, Manigault-Newman would not say whether [Roger] Stone could have passed Trump information about the WikiLeaks releases, but she said that Mueller has “rightfully” zeroed in on Stone in his probe.
Omarosa also said the special counsel's team has interviewed her, and she would be happy to cooperate should investigators reach out again.
"Have you been interviewed by the special counsel?" NBC's Katy Tur asked Manigault Newman on MSNBC, following up on the former Trump aide's assertion the previous day that she would be willing to speak to Mueller "again."
"I have," Manigault Newman replied.
She declined to answer Tur's further questions, saying she could not provide any more details.
"That’s the extent I can go in discussing that as well," said Manigault Newman, who was fired from the White House last year. "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."
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The reality TV star in recent days has released two tapes she secretly recorded during her time in the White House as part of a media tour to promote her new memoir "Unhinged." She claims she has more recordings and would be willing to give them to the special counsel.
On Tuesday, Trump's campaign announced it had filed for arbitration against Manigault Newman, alleging she violated a 2016 nondisclosure agreement by publishing the explosive exposé, which depicts the president as a mentally unstable and cruel leader.
"I don’t believe that I violated [the nondisclosure agreement] but I’m going to leave that to the lawyers to sort that out," Manigault Newman told Tur on MSNBC. "It’s interesting that he’s trying to silence me. So what is he trying to hide? What is he afraid of?"
Omarosa claims Trump knew about hacked emails prior to WikiLeaks release (The Hill)