Tag: Juliette Kayyem

Manigault Newman says she secretly recorded Kelly firing her in the White House Situation Room in December 2017, and she played the recording on NBC’s Meet The Press on Sunday. On Monday, she released another recording, aired on NBC’s Today program, in which Trump appears to express surprise that she had been ousted. Trump hits back after Omarosa releases secret recording of president Read more The former White House aide, who had previously been a contestant on Trump’s reality television show The Apprentice, shared the recording as part of her promotional tour for her new book about her stint in the White House, Unhinged. Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs in the Department of Homeland Security, pointed to Manigault Newman’s recording device as signifying the lack of “security culture” in the Trump administration. She pointed out instances such as White House staffers working without security clearances, Trump using an unsecured phone and his 2017 dinner with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe about North Korea among diners at Mar-a-Lago. Bradley Moss, a national security lawyer in Washington, noted that it was unusual for a personnel meeting to happen in the Situation Room. In his opinion, the most obvious reason would be that the White House “had its own suspicions that she was the type of person who might try to secretly record [the meeting], and put it in the Situation Room.” Is this a security risk? Moss also told the Guardian that Manigault Newman’s use of a recording device presented counterintelligence risks. What has the White House said? “The very idea a staff member would sneak a recording device into the White House Situation Room shows a blatant disregard for our national security,” said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.