UPDATED: April 18, 2016, 8:59 PM ET, with statement from the Trump campaign.
A seasoned Republican political operative filed a defamation lawsuit Monday alleging GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and his campaign manager smeared her after she criticized Trump on national television.
Communications strategist Cheri Jacobus seeks $4 million in damages along with unspecified punitive damages and court fees in the suit, which was filed Monday morning in New York County court.
After Jacobus called Trump “a third grader faking his way through an oral report on current affairs” during a Jan. 26 appearance on CNN, campaign manager Corey Lewandowski hit back the next morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Trump’s campaign manager said Jacobus approached the campaign “on multiple occasions” trying to get a job, and when she wasn’t hired, “clearly she went off and was upset by that.”
After Jacobus again criticized Trump on CNN on Feb. 2, Trump said on Twitter that she “begged” the campaign for a job.
Great job on @donlemon tonight @kayleighmcenany @cherijacobus begged us for a job. We said no and she went hostile. A real dummy! @CNN
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2016
But according to Jacobus, the campaign reached out to her last spring through a former staffer. She met with Lewandowski twice but didn’t join the campaign, an anonymous source told Politico.
The lawsuit comes just as the Trump campaign was getting out of the woods on another legal matter. A misdemeanor battery charge against Lewandowski in Florida was dropped last week.
Monday evening, the campaign said in a statement to TPM: “This is just another frivolous lawsuit and an attempt to gain notoriety at the expense of Donald Trump.”
Read the full complaint below:
This post has been updated.
