Reporter was recorded during confrontation with Omarosa: ‘This is freaking Nixonian’

Omarosa Manigault, a top adviser to President Trump, said she has a recording of a recent contentious exchange with a White House reporter.

April Ryan, a veteran White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks (AURN) told The Washington Post she was “physically intimidated” by Manigault after an exchange last week.

“She stood right in my face like she was going to hit me,” Ryan told the newspaper. “I said, ‘You better back up.’ “

Now, Manigault says she has a recording of the dispute that was also shared with some other reporters, according to the Post.

{mosads}Ryan said she did not know she was being recorded during the incident. 

“I didn’t know she was taping it,” she said. “This is about her trying to smear my name. This is freaking Nixonian.”

Manigault told the Post that the White House press staff records interviews with reporters “all the time.”

“When you come into [the press staff’s offices], you’re on the record,” she said.

The District of Columbia has a “one-party consent” law, making it legal to record a conversation or call if just one person in the conversation has consented.

The former “Apprentice” candidate said another White House “colleague” made the recording.

“She came in [to the White House press area] hot,” Manigault said, according to the Post.

“She came in with an attitude. 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 added.

Ryan and Manigault are former friends, the Post reported.

In describing the exchange on Monday, Ryan said Manigault told her she was one of many African-American journalists who are the subject of White House “dossiers.”

White House press secretary Sean Spicer denied that the Trump administration was doing any such thing at Tuesday’s press briefing.

“That is absolutely not true. There are no dossiers being kept,” Spicer said.

Fox News’s White House reporter said he was one of the journalists with whom Manigault shared the recording. He told the Post that he heard a discussion, but did not characterize it as a “confrontation,” the Post reported. He also said he did not hear any mention of a “dossier.”

Ryan defended her initial description of the confrontation.

“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.”