A Republican consultant and television commentator is suing Donald Trump, his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and his campaign for defamation in a $4 million lawsuit.
In papers filed with the Supreme Court of New York on Monday, an attorney for Cheri Jacobus accuses the Trump campaign of falsely claiming in public that the consultant has spoken negatively about Trump because the campaign didn’t hire her.
“The gist and sting of the defamatory statements made by Lewandowski and Trump were accusations that Jacobus had begged the Trump campaign for a job with the campaign on multiple occasions, but had been turned down by the campaign (in Lewandowski’s telling), and by Trump himself (in Trump’s telling), which caused a scorned Jacobus to seek revenge against Trump and the campaign through biased commentary in the media.”
“These statements by Lewandowski and Trump were also undeniably false.”
The lawsuit continues: “These statements incited a virtual campaign of abuse and harassment against Jacobus, causing enormous damage to her career and reputation, significant emotional distress and holding her up to public ridicule.”
In February, after Jacobus criticized Trump on CNN, Trump tweeted, for example, “@cherijacobus begged us for a job. We said no and she went hostile. A real dummy! “
Great job on @donlemon tonight @kayleighmcenany @cherijacobus begged us for a job. We said no and she went hostile. A real dummy! @CNN
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2016
The Daily Caller has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
This is the second legal issue Lewandowski has recently faced — a prosecutor in Florida last week decided against prosecuting him for grabbing the arm of a female reporter. That reporter, Michelle Fields, formerly of Breitbart News, has said she is mulling her own defamation suit.
In Jacobus’ case, the Republican acknowledges interviewing for a job with Trump.
According to the filing, “the Trump campaign actively recruited Jacobus, but boorish behavior by Lewandowski led Jacobus to conclude that she would not be comfortable working for the Trump campaign.”
The lawsuit includes a transcript of a Facebook message between Jacobus and Jim Dornan, who was working for Trump at the time. In the post, Dornan wrote: “Would you consider coming to work for us? We need a top notch communications director.”
After meeting with Dornan and Lewandowski, Jacobus wrote an email saying she thought an $18,000 to $19,000 a month would be an appropriate salary. But she says she ultimately decided against working for Trump because of negative interactions with Lewandowski during the interview process.
“As the subject of the meeting turned to discussion of communications, Lewandowski became increasingly agitated and rude, speaking in a loud voice and seeming to lack control,” the lawsuit states.
“Lewandowski made several inappropriate remarks, bragging about yelling at Megyn Kelly, a well known journalist,” of Fox News.
“At no point did Jacobus ‘beg’ the Trump campaign for a job, or even affirmatively apply for a position with the Trump campaign, nor was she turned down for a position,” the lawsuit states. “When recruited by the Trump campaign, she agreed to participate in two meetings and provide her compensation expectations, because she deemed the invitation from the Trump campaign to be worth at least those initial conversations.”