Kellyanne Conway responded to claims from former White House official Omarosa Manigault Newman that she was offered “hush money” by saying Sunday that everyone in the West Wing has signed nondisclosure agreements, which she described as a completely normal practice.

Manigault Newman, who served as communications director for the White House Office of Public Liaison, reportedly says in her new book that she was offered $15,000 a month in exchange for her silence after leaving the White House.


“It is typical, and you know it, to sign an NDA … in any place of work,” Conway, counselor to the president, said to host Jonathan Karl on ABC’s “This Week.” “I’d be shocked if you didn’t have one at ABC.”

“I’m told she signed them when she was on ‘The Apprentice,’ certainly at the campaign. We’ve all signed them in the West Wing,” she added. “And why wouldn’t we?”

When Karl noted that Conway is a public employee, Conway said, “But confidentiality is implied.”

“That’s not hush money,” she said. “Everybody signs an NDA. It sounds like she didn’t want to sign it and didn’t want to go back to the campaign because she had a book on her mind.”


In an interview to promote her new book, Manigault Newman indicated on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that such agreements are common in Trump’s sphere. She said other former White House officials are getting a similar deal, “which is why [former White House press secretary] Sean Spicer was describing Donald Trump as a unicorn jumping over rainbows.”

She said she was offered a job on the Trump campaign in exchange for signing a restrictive nondisclosure agreement that prevented her from criticizing Trump, Vice President Mike Pence or any of their family members or companies affiliated with their families.

“They were not offering a real job,” she said. “I could work from home if I even wanted to work.”