First of all, speaking from experience and first-hand knowledge, as a career senior intelligence officer, having served on the White House National Security staff and in the White House Situation Room, her claim raises serious questions. To begin with, the fact is that Omarosa Manigault Newman, based on her the position held and the role she served in and the position on the White House staff, would not warrant access to the Situation Room — that is highly unlikely. Nor would she ever be granted an above Top Secret clearance which would have been necessary for the proper credentialing for access. Her role as a culture advisor would have never met the criteria authorizing her access to the Situation Room. The only way she would have been granted access is if she was personally invited and escorted into the Situation Room in this case would have been by General John Kelly, the President’s Chief of Staff (CoS)…the only likely case.
It’s beyond the pale in more ways than one that Omarosa has trouble getting and keeping her stories straight — that’s already been validated by the many who have fact checked her book which is full of lies, accusations and innuendo – it’s certified total bullshit! Of course, the reason is her book serves a purpose of in the realm of the political-left and the mainstream media to attack and smear the credibility and reputation of President Trump. It is yet one more of many hit pieces on him the person, his character and his presidency. Omarosa, is yet another tool of the Progressives. She may be famous in the circles of the pop-culture elitist, but as a professional serving the POTUS, she obviously proved herself well to be insignificant, incompetent and lacking integrity. The purpose of and reason for her firing. Omarosa is the disgruntled White House aide who was fired last year for ethics violations and it is obviously now she is playing the victim card.
So how did this come about? First, if in fact the incident did occur in the Situation Room, it would have been because, CoS John Kelly, escorted her down to the Secure SCIF for the purpose of privacy and to an environment that offered less chance of interruption and eaves dropping for the sensitive nature of his session. Additionally, while the Situation Room is a more private environment to conduct her counseling and firing, it still afforded witnesses should she attempt to make other salacious claims and victimization.
The real problem in addition to the reason for her firing are her actions, if in any case, with regard to her reasons leading up to and supportive of her questionable behavior.  Omorosa says she taped CoS John Kelly in the Situation Room. Again, while she in fact, definitely taped him, it’s not clear yet if it did in fact take place in that area of the White House, which is a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility which in U.S. military, national security/national defense and intelligence parlance, is an enclosed area within a building that is used to process Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) types of classified information. Access is extremely limited and any and everything that enters or leaves a SCIF is extremely controlled.
If so, the problem of intent to record him would have come prior to this counseling session even comes into play. Obviously, she would have known in advance she had a forthcoming meeting with Kelly for whatever reason the purpose was. It is also quite obvious that she is well known for secretly recording her conversations with others, no matter who she is speaking with. So this means that before the time she may have been escorted into the Situation Room by Kelly, she would have had to turn on her phone on the recording capability prior to going into the Situation Room. To do so after the fact, while in the SCIF, she would have been observed doing so both by Kelly and other Situation Room staff. That would have resulted in the confiscation of her phone, and charges of intent you use and unauthorized electronic device inside the SCIF – Situation Room…hence a major security violation.
Authors Note; I tend to believe that if in fact it is determined that Omarosa did bring a cell phone or other electronic device into the Situation Room, and in fact recorded CoS General Kelly, the device will be confiscated to determine what was recorded and if other conversations of a classified nature were recorded, or picked up on the device. Having worked in the White House Situation Room, and other highly secured facilities, be aware there are sensors within those facilities that will detect any foreign or rogue electronic devices that might be active or even inactive and will alert both security and White House Communications Agency officials of such. That may have already occurred and unfortunately for security reasons the responsible agencies don’t tend to make such occurrences public when devices are detected and may have been confiscated or apprehended.
This is certainly an integrity issue for her and suggests the intent and purpose for many things including trust, relationships, and obviously why she was removed from the White House staff — for integrity issues. Interestingly, she admits she was fired for “serious integrity violations”. That again raises concerns.
From reporting on this issue, John Kelly tells her, as heard on the tape at her firing session that she is accused of “some serious integrity violations”. So the question now is being is she sharing this to clear her name? Kelly told her on tape that the firing “has to do with some very serious integrity violations.” So, her defense is sketchy.
Of course, also note that taping and making secret recordings with an electronic device secretly within a classified area, i.e.; the Situation Room or any SCIF or sensitive area controlled by the Federal Government, is an integrity violation, proving the COS’s point. It also validates criminal intention to premeditate the act of implementing a secret recording.
Even if it’s not illegal for her to have taped, it’s absolutely unethical and again brings into question her character and irrational behavior. Also, if it is true that she taped the CoS in a classified area [SCIF], that is in fact illegal and a crime. That action needs to be prosecuted. Further, in her weekend and Sunday news appearances, even when hosts and reporters questioned her on the integrity issue she violated during today’s interview in which she shares some of the audio.
Her character and integrity is further reflective of her and lacking of any self-respect and respect for General Kelly. In the tape recording with John Kelly, he tells her a friendly departure will make it easier for her to move on with a resume that includes a year in the White House. He was doing her a tremendous favor. But instead, her vindictive and self-promoting personality showed through and rather than be grateful and thankful, Omorosa took that as a threat, and while it is actually justifiable fact, rather than accept the situation and move on unscathed, instead, with extraordinarily hyperbolic language, she called it “criminal”.
The President’s CoS was generously letting her go with an opportunity to save her reputation and waylay her experience into another lucrative position. But instead, she proved his point about “integrity violations”. Further, for some reason, she thinks that Kelly, being in charge of hiring and firing shows the President is clueless. She makes a lot of unsubstantiated speculative-based comments for which she hasn’t a clue and along with totally irrational and insanely ludicrous leaps. Remember, she had a complementary position in the White House to conduct cultural and social outreach. Any job that has the term outreach in it, almost exclusively relates to a bullshit position. In her capacity, she had a very small portfolio to which she was the one who was clueless and in fact the fraudulent way she conducted herself was one of the reasons Kelly, to the necessary action to fire her. One of the reasons I for one suspect her lacking of integrity was related to the falsifying and overstating on travel vouchers which in itself was criminal.
So typical of the political-left elitists and the liberal mindset is to always deflect personal responsibility and place blame somewhere else. Likewise in its support of her, almost immediately, the left-wing mainstream media and its tentacles inside social media are making this about the White House, claiming security lapses, and an allegedly threatening Chief of Staff are the real issues, of course in their view, where truth is and will never be a critical factor, the fake news is front and center once again.
Again, Omarosa was a tool and it is obvious from the beginning she would be a problem, despite the fact the President graciously and respectfully offered her a position in his White House. She is the one that abused and exploited her role and position for political purposes and now she must face the consequences of her actions, immature and unprofessional character which is well documented and represented by her despicable behavior and actions, particularly in the lies and mistruths she is now sewing.
Perhaps her firing came at the requests of other in the White House who were patriotically and responsibly trying to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. We all worked at some time in our lives and careers where there has always been that one person male or female who was just that irritating and miserable person to work with, who made everyone’s life equally retched in the workplace or job site. It must have been awful working with her considering her inability to think logically, her disloyalty, and her bad temper. Her lack of self-reflection comes through so clearly. She also appears to lie habitually. In her new book, “Unhinged,” she allegedly writes that she did not hear the President use the “n” word but she told NBC she heard a tape with him using the word on the set of The Apprentice. That is an old story spun by entertainer and noted Trump hater Tom Arnold. In fact, well known pollster and focus group expert Frank Luntz, who she falsely quoted in her book, proved her wrong on Sunday in his tweet and on camera commentary.
The way she characterized her meeting with General Kelly is totally false. This woman is so self-serving for the sole purpose of joining in with the political left distain for this President and as an effort to make a quick buck. Unfortunately, her disgruntled false accusations and lies, which have been proven to be contradictory in her own book, reflect so much on her shortcomings and lack of character and integrity. This is someone with zero credibility and has shown herself to be so hypocritical after first praising the President for the work he has done for Blacks in this county, but in the end, switched her story to for money and politics. In the end, again, her character and integrity has been impugned beyond measure. Her character and behavior is completely disgraceful.
While, we don’t know exactly what the security issues are yet and many will and would not read and in fact ignore what John Kelly as a threat so much as an offer to spare her. Her unethical taping is being used by the media to trash the President. Of course, at the same time, the political-left’s double standard hypocrisy abounds now as this same media, is the media who insulted, ridiculed, and mocked Omarosa for accepting the offered position and her entire time in the White House. Candace Owens said it best, prosecute her! … and I agree.