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According to Republican operative Cheri Jacobus, she met twice with Corey Lewandowski but the meetings did not result in her joining the Trump campaign. | AP Photo GOP operative sues Trump, Lewandowski for defamation

A veteran Republican operative filed a defamation suit against Donald Trump and his campaign manager in New York on Monday over statements the pair made earlier this year portraying her as a spurned job-seeker with a grudge against the Republican front-runner.

The suit, brought in New York County by communications strategist Cheri Jacobus, seeks $4 million in damages as well as unspecified punitive damages and court costs. It alleges that Trump and campaign manager Corey Lewandowski falsely and knowingly impugned her professional reputation in retaliation for her criticisms of Trump’s performance as a candidate.

The case again casts a cloud of legal trouble over Trump’s campaign just four days after a prosecutor in Florida announced his decision not to pursue a criminal battery case against Lewandowski for an unrelated March incident in which he grabbed Michelle Fields, then a reporter for Breitbart, by the arm.

The complaint stems from comments Lewandowski and Trump made in late January and early February following Jacobus’ January 26 assertion on CNN that Trump, in interviews and debates, “comes off like a third grader faking his way through an oral report on current affairs.”

The next day, on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Lewandowski said that Jacobus “came to the office on multiple occasion trying to get a job from the Trump campaign, and she wasn’t hired clearly she went off and was upset by that.”

Following a February 2 CNN appearance in which Jacobus criticized Trump’s claim that he does not get enough credit for self-funding his campaign, the businessman tweeted “@cherijacobus begged us for a job. We said no and she went hostile. A real dummy!”

On Feb. 5, two days after a lawyer for Jacobus sent Trump and Lewandowski a cease-and-desist letter in response to those comments, and one day after POLITICO reported on the letter, Trump tweeted, “Really dumb @CheriJacobus. Begged my people for a job. Turned her down twice and she went hostile. Major loser, zero credibility!”

According to Jacobus, the campaign first reached out to her last spring through a former Trump aide, Jim Dornan. She met twice with Lewandowski but the meetings did not result in her joining the campaign. A person involved in the preparations for Trump’s campaign has previously confirmed that version of events to POLITICO.

According to the complaint, Jacobus decided she did not want a job with the campaign after encountering Lewandowski’s “boorish behavior.”

Citing comments Jacobus made last summer on CNN defending Trump from charges of racism, the complaint makes the case that — contrary to Trump’s and Lewandowski’s accusations — she was not embittered by her prior interactions with the campaign.

The suit further alleges that Trump and the campaign bore a grudge against Jacobus for providing information to a Washington Post reporter for an article last fall about the pro-Trump Make America Great Again super PAC, which had close ties to the campaign and was run by an associate of Lewandowski’s. Following the Post’s reporting, the super PAC shut down.

A spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign, the general counsel of the Trump Organization and Lewandowski all did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In an email, Jacobus’ lawyer, Jay Butterman of Butterman & Kahn in New York, said the defendants had been served with the complaint, which also holds Trump’s campaign liable for damages.

“While libel suits are generally difficult to prove, in this matter it is indisputable that the statements of Trump and his agents which are the subject of this lawsuit are defamatory,” Butterman wrote. “Donald Trump far exceeded the legitimate bounds of free expression in his false attacks on Ms. Jacobus. He should be held accountable for his actions. We have no doubt that the defendants will hurl a host of technical objections at this filing, but we are confident that the complaint has already addressed the technical hurdles often confronting the victims of defamation.”

Attached to the complaint is an exhibit demonstrating the online abuse from non-campaign individuals directed at Jacobus following Trump’s and Lewandowski’s statements. It includes an image of Jacobus, made by a Trump supporter, doctored to show testicles dangling from her chin.