*The Biden Justice Department is picking up where the Trump administration left off with the two-year-old legal battle against Omarosa Manigault Newman.
We previously reported, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Omarosa in 2019, alleging that the former “Apprentice” star, who served as an adviser to former President Donald Trump, failed to file a required financial disclosure report after she was fired from the White House.
According to Reuters, the government is seeking a civil fine of up to $50,000 from Omarosa, who spent 11 months as director of communications in the White House Office of Public Liaison before her December 2017 dismissal.
The complaint alleges that Omarosa violated the Ethics in Government Act by failing to file the report, despite several email reminders from the White House. Such a report is required because her salary was above a $124,406 cutoff.
READ MORE: Omarosa Being Sued by Justice Department Over Unfiled Financial Disclosure
“She…made no attempt to file any Termination Report before September 2019, more than a year and a half after it was due and after this litigation was commenced,” DOJ lawyers wrote in a new brief filed in federal court in Washington on Thursday. “Then, following that submission—in which only half the required fields were even filled out—Defendant made no effort for over a year to correct her submission, despite being promptly advised of its deficiencies…She remains out of compliance with [the Ethics in Government Act] to this day.”
According to the complaint filed with the federal court in Washington, D.C., Omarosa’s financial disclosure report was due by Jan. 18, 2018, a month after she exited the White House. The suit wants the court to impose a civil penalty of $61,585 on her for refusing to file it.
Manigault Newman’s main defense, per MSN, is that after her exit from the White House, Trump’s aides refused to return the financial records she needed to complete the exit report. She also believes the lawsuit is simply illegal retaliation for her blowing the whistle on government wrongdoing.
After leaving the White House, Omarosa became a staunch critic of Trump. She appeared on the reality show “Big Brother,” condemning his administration, and she released audio recordings that she secretly made of a conversation with then-White House chief of staff John Kelly. She also published a memoir, “Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House.”
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