Lawsuit says Trump 2016 campaign staffer was punished after supervisor got her pregnant
A former staffer for President Trump's 2016 campaign claims she was stripped of her responsibilities and frozen out of a White House job after she got pregnant from an affair with her supervisor. A.J. Delgado on Monday filed a federal lawsuit in Manhattan alleging discrimination from the Trump campaign and transition team, as well as three men who once held top spots in Mr. Trump's White House — Stephen Bannon, Sean Spicer and Reince Priebus.
Delgado "felt extremely humiliated, degraded, victimized, embarrassed and emotionally distressed" by the treatment she faced after announcing her pregnancy, the lawsuit says. It also claims the alleged discrimination from Trump officials was "malicious, willful, outrageous, and conducted with full knowledge of the law."
Delgado is a political commentator who was an early supporter of Mr. Trump's candidacy in 2015. After promoting Trump's presidential bid in op-eds and TV appearances, she joined his campaign in August 2016 as a senior adviser and the director of Hispanic outreach.
The lawsuit says Mr. Trump praised Delgado as a "star," invited her on stage at events and said at least three times he would hire her as a White House staffer if he won.
Things allegedly took a turn in November 2016 after Deglado learned that she was pregnant from an affair with Jason Miller, her married supervisor on the campaign. The lawsuit alleges that after Delgado told Miller about her pregnancy, he said that she could not be seen, "waddling around the White House pregnant."
The complaint says that during Mr. Trump's transition, officials suddenly started ignoring Delgado and discouraging her work. Spicer, who would become Mr. Trump's first White House press secretary, allegedly told Delgado that the White House was "no place for a new mom."
The lawsuit also claims Bannon, Mr. Trump's former chief strategist, and Priebus, the former White House chief of staff, played a role in taking away Delgado's responsibilities leading up to Mr. Trump's inauguration, even for projects she had already started. Delgado "immediately and inexplicably" stopped receiving campaign and transition communications and was excluded from all work relating to the inauguration, including scheduled TV appearances.
Once Mr. Trump became president, White House officials ignored Delgado and she never received a job offer. according to the complaint. Delgado gave birth in July 2017.
Miller was tapped to serve as the White House communication director, but withdrew after reports emerged of his affair with Delgado.
The lawsuit demands a jury trial to determine damages to be paid to Delgado. The press office for Mr. Trump's 2020 campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit adds another layer of legal drama to the affair between Delgado and Miller, who are now locked in a custody battle. Miller filed a libel lawsuit against the now-defunct news site Splinter for reporting on a court filing from the custody battle, which said Miller secretly slipped an abortion pill to a woman in another affair. Miller denied the allegation and is appealing a judge's ruling dismissing the libel suit.
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign filed for arbitration against Delgado, claiming that she broke a non-disclosure agreement. Delgado's lawsuit says that this was retaliation for her complaints about discrimination.