Former presidential adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman said Sunday she secretly recorded conversations she had in the White House, including her firing by chief of staff John Kelly in the high-security Situation Room. It was a highly unusual admission, which immediately drew fire from allies of the president.

'Who in their right mind thinks it’s appropriate to secretly record the White House chief of staff in the Situation Room?' Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel tweeted.

'Secretly recording conversations in the Situation Room isn't just wildly inappropriate, it's a threat to our national security,' McDaniel added. 'If she broke federal law, she should be prosecuted.'

American Enterprise Institute scholar Norman Ornstein had a blunter question: 'What the hell was OMAROSA doing in the situation room?'

Parts of Manigault Newman's conversation with Kelly were played on the air during an appearance on NBC's 'Meet the Press' to promote her new book, 'Unhinged,' which will be released Tuesday.

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Omarosa Manigault Newman may have broken federal law by recording John Kelly firing her in one of the most secure places in the White House, it has been claimed

Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, pictured in 2017, asked 'who in their right mind thinks it's appropriate' for a White House aide to make secret recordings in the ultra-secure Situation Room

McDaniel raised the possibility of criminal prosecution for Manigault Newman

A conference room is shown inside the Situation Room complex at the White House in May 2007

Zara Rahim, a former Hillary Clinton spokeswoman, put it bluntly and asked 'What the actual f*** is going on in the West Wing'

In it, she paints a damning picture of President Donald Trump, including claiming without evidence that tapes exist of him using the N-word as he filmed his 'The Apprentice' reality series, on which she was a contestant.

She said in the book that she had not personally heard the recording. But she told Chuck Todd on Sunday that, after the book had closed, she was able to hear a recording of Trump during a trip to Los Angeles.

'I heard his voice as clear as you and I are sitting here,' she said on the show.

But the other recording she discussed Sunday could prove equally explosive.

The Situation Room is a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, and staff are not permitted to bring in cell phones or other recording devices.

Small lockers are positioned outside the door so aides can securely leave prohibited devices during critical meetings.

The onetime Trump-backer who is now his public nemesis on Sunday played her bombshell reocrding on 'Meet the Press'

Scholars from the left and right pounced on the lax security culture that allowed a former reality TV contestant access to the Situation Room

National security lawyer Bradley Moss told The Daily Beast on Sunday that '[p]rotocol absolutely dictates you place that phone into the lockers right outside the Situation Room. I’ve put my cell phones in similar lockers at government facilities. It’s non-negotiable.'

He said while White House visitors are screened, in-house staff operate on an honor system, which Omarosa 'clearly violated ... and it is clear she deliberately meant to do so.'

Zara Rahim, who dropped an F-bomb into her analysis of Omarosa's actions, is now in charge of communications for Vogue magazine

Zara Rahim, a former national spokeswoman for Hillary Clinton who now leads the communications team at Vogue magazine, said that 'Omarosa in the situation room is such an alarming visual to me I can’t wrap my head around it. What the actual f*** is going on in the West Wing.'

Americans 'should be alarmed at a few things including the fact that she was in the Situation Room AND had an unsecured device in a SCIF,' she added. 'My god.'

Nonpartisan analysts, too, was aghast.

''[I]t is clear across the board that there is no security culture at the WH [White House],' tweeted Harvard Kennedy School of Government professor Juliette Kayyen.

'It begins with Trump's phone. That Omarosa did this is really not surprising. Security only as strong as leadership enforces.'

Kayyem is also a national security analyst for CNN.

In the recording played on air, and which Manigault Newman quotes in the book, Kelly can be heard saying she can look at her time at the White House as a year of 'service to the nation' and referring to potential 'difficulty in the future relative to your reputation.'

Manigault Newman said she viewed the comment as a 'threat' and defended her decision to covertly record it and other White House conversations, describing it as a form of protection.

'If I didn't have these recordings, no one in America would believe me,' she said.

The White House did not immediately respond to the tape, but President Trump on Saturday labeled his former communications aide a 'lowlife.'

The White House is slamming Manigault Newman's new book, 'Unhinged'

LISTEN - Audio of John Kelly firing Omarosa in the situation room over her 'integrity issues'

NBCUniversal Privacy Policy GEN. JOHN KELLY: Hi. OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN: Hi there, how are you? JOHN KELLY: Who are you? FEMALE VOICE: Hi. OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN: My assistant. JOHN KELLY: Could you leave us alone? FEMALE VOICE: Sure. OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN: Hi. JOHN KELLY: I'm only going to stay for a couple of minutes. These are lawyers. We're going to talk to you about leaving the White House. It's come to my attention, over the last few months, that there's been some pretty, in my opinion, significant integrity issues related to you and use of government vehicles and some other issues. And they'll, they'll, they'll walk you through the legal aspects of this. But there is some, from my view, there's some money issues and other things, but from my view, the integrity issues are very serious. I'm stuck with my past experience and that is, when we hold people accountable in the military, I would, I compare what I see here at the White House and other issues that I've had to deal with and say what would I do to this, in this case if I was in the Pentagon dealing with a Marine or a soldier or something like that? And the issue that you may or may not have a full appreciation for, but I think you do, this would be a pretty high level of accountability, meaning a court-martial. We're not suggesting any legal action here. OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN: That I -- that I did? JOHN KELLY: Just stay with me, just stay with me. Yep. That it would be a a pretty serious offense. So with that I'm just going to ask you -- these gentlemen will explain it. We'll bring a personnel person in after after they talk to you. But just to understand that I'd like to see this be a a friendly departure. There are pretty significant legal issues that we hope don't develop into something that, that'll make it ugly for you. But I think it's important to understand that if we make this a friendly departure we can all be, you know, you can look at, look at your time here in, in the White House as a year of service to the nation. And then you can go on without any type of difficulty in the future relative to your reputation. But it's very, very important I think that you understand that there are some serious legal issues that have been violated. And you're, you're open to some legal action that we hope, I think, we can control, right? So with that, if you would stay here with these gentlemen they'll lay this thing out – OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN: Can I ask you a couple questions? Does the president -- is the president aware of what's going on? JOHN KELLY: Don't do -- let's not go down the road. This is a non-negotiable discussion. OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN: I don't want to negotiate. I just, I've never talked -- had a chance to talk to you General Kelly so if this is my departure I'd like to have at least an opportunity – JOHN KELLY: No. OMAROSA: --to understand. JOHN KELLY: We can, we can talk another time. This has to do with some pretty serious violat -- integrity violations. So I'll let it go at that. So the the staff and everyone on the staff works for me, not the president. And so after your departure I'll inform him if he gets interested on, on where you may be. So with that I'll let you go and if gentlemen you could take it. MALE VOICE: Thanks. Yep. I'm really sorry we're here. SOURCE: NBC NEWS' 'MEET THE PRESS WITH CHUCK TODD' A conference room is shown inside the Situation Room complex at the White House – a signal-hardened place where recording devices and cameras are strictly prohibited Advertisement

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway also questioned Manigault Newman's credibility in an interview Sunday on ABC's 'This Week.'

'The first time I ever heard Omarosa suggest those awful things about this president are in this book,' she said, noting Manigault Newman 'is somebody who gave a glowing appraisal of Donald Trump the businessman, the star of the "The Apprentice," the candidate and, indeed, the President of the United States.'

Conway said that, in her more than two years working with Trump, she has never heard him use a racial slur about anyone.

Manigault Newman had indeed been a staunch defender of the president for years, including pushing back, as the highest-profile African-American in the White House, on accusations that he was racist.

But Manigault Newman now says she was 'used' by Trump for years, calling him a 'con' who 'has been masquerading as someone who is actually open to engaging with diverse communities' and is 'truly a racist.'

'I was complicit with this White House deceiving this nation,' she said. 'I had a blind spot where it came to Donald Trump.'