Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has been ordered to pay more than $1.3 million in legal fees to former “Apprentice” star Omarosa Manigault Newman after launching a failed lawsuit over her book detailing her time as a White House adviser, her lawyers have said.
Manigault Newman's attorney John M. Phillips welcomed the award in a statement on Wednesday, saying it was “the largest known attorney fee award against a Political Campaign or President we can find.”
The award comes months after arbitrator T. Andrew Brown ruled in Manigault Newman's favor in September after the Trump campaign accused her of violating a nondisclosure agreement with the release of her book titled, "Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House," in which she described Trump as a "racist, a bigot and a misogynist."
The Trump campaign filed a formal complaint in 2018 with the American Arbitration Association in New York. However, Brown ruled that the nondisclosure agreement was invalid under New York law and was “unenforceable.”
He said the terms of the nondisclosure agreement were “highly problematic" as they did not adhere to typical legal standards and said there was no way for Manigault Newman to know whether she was in breach of the contract, given how vague it was.
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On Wednesday, Manigault Newman celebrated her latest victory in the case, comparing the legal battle to "David vs. Goliath" in a tweet.
"First year law student vs. #45’s entire legal team," she wrote, noting that she is currently studying law at Southern University Law Center. A representative for Manigault Newman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the former "Apprentice" star.
Trump has not provided an official comment, but an insider familiar with his legal strategy said the former president plans to challenge the award in court.
Trump hosted the reality television show “The Apprentice,” as well as its spinoff, “The Celebrity Apprentice.” Both aired on NBC from 2004 to 2015 before he ran for president.
Newman had been a three-time contestant on the show and went on to become a close confidant of Trump, eventually becoming one of his advisers. Their relationship appeared to fray during her time with his administration, however, and she was reported to have been forced out in 2017, though she maintained that she left on her own terms.
Manigault Newman previously acknowledged she had signed nondisclosure agreements for her work on the Trump campaign, but said she had never signed one for her work in the White House.
In her book, she said that at the end of her time with the White House, Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, had sent her a contract to work on Trump's re-election bid for $15,000 a month in exchange for signing a nondisclosure agreement that she said was “as harsh and restrictive as any I’d seen in all my years of television.” She has said she did not sign that contract, however.
Lara Trump later dismissed a recording released by Manigault Newman purported to show her offering the campaign job and said she was “shocked and saddened by her betrayal and violation.”