An unusually vicious clash between a reporter and a key Trump White House insider deteriorated into new insults and accusations Tuesday night after a recording surfaced that contained part of their angry confrontation on Monday.

A staffer working with Trump communications aide Omarosa Manigault recorded her shouting match with American Urban Radio Networks correspondent April Ryan, one of the few black journalists working at the White House. Manigault shared it with reporters.

Ryan, both women told CNN, accused Manigault of telling press secretary Sean Spicer not to call on her for questions during daily briefings with reporters.

'I didn’t know she was taping it,' Ryan told The Washington Post of the argument that followed. 'This is about her trying to smear my name. This is freaking Nixonian.'

Is is legal in Washington, D.C. to record conversations as long as at least one participant is aware of it.

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White House reporter April Ryan clashed on Monday with Office of Public Liaison communications chief Omarosa Manigault, and a recording of the confrontation shows the two women going at each other with knives out

Manigault, who rose to fame as a cutthroat competitor on President Donald Trump's 'Apprentice' reality TV shows, dismissed Ryan with a 'Girl please!' and accused her ofbeing on the Clintons' payroll

Ryan has been covering the White House for American Urban Radio Networks since 1997; she says the secret recording, which Manigault shared with CNN and the Washington Post, omits the Trump aide's aggressive words and threats

Ryan had complained on Monday that Manigault, a one-time star of President Donald Trump's 'Apprentice' and 'Celebrity Apprentice' reality TV shows, 'physically intimidated' her.

But Manigault told the Post that it was an angry Ryan who provoked the loud war of words with a barrage of verbal body-slams.

'She came in hot. She came in with an attitude,' she said.' For her to characterize me as the bully – I’m so glad we have this tape … because it's "liar, liar, pants on fire",' she said of Ryan.

Ryan also claimed Monday that Manigault, who is also black, had warned her that she was among a group of black reporters the Trump administration is tracking closely with opposition-research 'dossiers.'

White House press secretary Sean Spicer dismissed that claim on Tuesday as 'absolutely not true.'

The four-minute recording of the two women's argument doesn't including any such reference, but Ryan was heard Tuesday warning media colleagues at the White House that the tape had been selectively edited.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer insisted the administration isn't keeping 'dossiers' on black reporters, despite Ryan's claim that Manigault warned her of such a tactic

She told the Post that Manigault had cherry-picked portions of their recorded squabble to make herself look like a victim.

'She wants to spin it like it’s a catfight, but she edited that tape,' Ryan said. 'You don’t hear her screaming. This is about her smearing me.'

That alleged smear appears to refer to Manigault charging that Ryan is a Hillary Clinton partisan who was secretly paid by the former secretary of state's campaign.

The tape captured Ryan telling bystanders that Manigault has 'got a problem,' and that she 'got in my face, stood over me.'

'She has the bad reputation. I don't,' Ryan proclaims, according to CNN.

'Oh, you do,' Manigault replies. 'You are paid by the Clintons.'

'Keep reporting it and see how you get sued,' Ryan fires back.

The accusation of pay-for-play reporting was a spillover from an October email exchange in which Manigault hinted that she might have been a paid Hillary Clinton campaign operative in disguise.

The Trump aide pointed to an article that quoted a Wikileaks dump of a Clinton campaign email summarizing the Democrat's relationship assets among political journalists.

The article, published by The Intercept, described the ordinary campaign strategy of cultivating and 'manipulating' reporters. The Wikileaks email listed Ryan among Clinton's targets.

Separately, that same publication described financial relationships between the Clinton campaign and nominally neutral TV pundits who often spoke up on her behalf.

Ryan was not among them. Manigault may have conflated the two lists.

'This story suggests that as a reporter, you are (or were) a paid Clinton surrogate,' Manigault wrote to Ryan in October. 'I pray this is not true! This could be hurtful to your legacy and the integrity of your work.'

Manigault had asked Ryan to be a bridesmaid in her wedding before that email exchange; Ryan later declined, dnd the recording of Monday's fight returned to the sore subject.

'Girl bye!' A passive-aggressive Manigault attacked Ryan on Monday in an exchange Ryan later said shows how 'dumb' she is

'I will never be in your wedding,' Ryan says to Manigault, according to CNN.

'Girl please,' Manigault replies.

'I still have the email where you begged for me to be in your wedding,' Ryan tells her.

'Girl bye,' Manigault says dismissively. 'Bye friend.'

'You turned on me,' Ryan complains.

Ryan told CNN on Tuesday that Manigault was 'dumb' for circulating the recording, claiming that it made the Trump aide look worse.

'She's stupid. This is how she dumb is,' Ryan told the network. 'She's a bully.'

Ryan had told CNN on Tuesday that Manigault 'stood right in my face like she was going to hit me' as they argued.

'I said, "You better back up." ... She thought I would be bullied. I won't be.'

Ryan complained Monday that Manigault had bullied and insulted her by questioning her integrity.

'It's just ugly,' she said. 'She's trying to harm my integrity and my career. I've been [covering the White House] for 20 years. I plan to be here for the next 20 years. You don't mess with someone's livelihood.'

Ryan, shown at far left in green during Barack Obama's 2015 end-of-year press conference, is often a blunt questioner in the White House press briefing room on issues of race

Ryan was generally supportive of Clinton's candidacy during the campaign season that sent Trump to the White House.

Hacked emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, published by Wikileaks, show her coziness and complimentary tone with the Democrat's senior aides.

Ryan warned Podesta and campaign communications chief Jennifer Palmieri in August 2015 that 'Hillary Clinton needs to sit down with black reporters fast. Her efforts in the black community are not resonating.'

Months earlier when Clinton was still preparing to announce her White House run, Ryan emailed them a friendly hello.

'Just checking in,' she wrote. 'I want to make sure I am on the Hillary Radar when she does it big.'

'Saw video of her yesterday. She looks great with those beautiful highlights!!!! So the announcement is on the way.'

'Thanks in advance for keeping me in the loop,' she closed her note, signing it: 'Fondly, April.'

In advance of an October 2015 Democratic primary debate, Ryan wished them 'good luck Tuesday.'

'No,' she added. 'Kick Some But [sic] Tuesdayt!!!!! [sic].'

And responding to the Democratic candidate's 'Saturday Night Live' cameo as a bartender who dispenses drinks and advice to 'Hillary Clinton' – played by actress Kate McKinnon – Ryan was effusive.

Ryan was effusive in her praise for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the 2015-2016 election cycle, judging from emails to campaign chair John Podesta that were released by Wikileaks

'She dropped the mic tonight!' the journalist wrote to Podesta and Palmieri.

'That means she was great!!!'

In an email Tuesday afternoon, Ryan told DailyMail.com that looking only at her correspondence with Clintonworld would provide an incomplete picture of her work.

'I wish they had emails from my requests for Trump interviews while on the campaign trail,' Ryan said. 'I actively asked on Twitter and Facebook [and] also kept asking for an interview.'

'I asked on a number of occasions. I still would like an interview with President Trump.'

'I am a reporter and talked to both sides. I got [a] Clinton interview but sad to say I never got a Trump interview even with requests on social media and email and on the phone,' Ryan added.