Former Trump Adviser Sues Campaign Alleging Pregnancy Discrimination

Former Trump Adviser Sues Campaign Alleging Pregnancy Discrimination
Jason Miller, former communications director for the Trump transition team, briefs reporters at Trump International Golf Club, in Bedminster Township, New Jersey, Nov. 20, 2016. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Janita Kan
12/25/2019
Updated:
12/26/2019

A former Trump adviser to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign has filed a suit against the campaign alleging that she was fired and denied a job in the White House because she had become pregnant.

Arlene “A.J.” Delgado, a conservative commentator who worked for the campaign between 2016 and 2017, has filed a suit against the campaign and several top advisers in the federal court in Manhattan on Monday. She alleged the discrimination began after she informed senior staff at the campaign that she had become pregnant with then-campaign strategist Jason Miller’s child.

The senior advisers named in the suit are former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, and former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

Delgado, who claims that she had appeared in over 100 television appearances to promote then-candidate Trump, alleged that she was ostracized after she revealed the news of the pregnancy. Her lawyers wrote in the complaint that after the announcement she stopped receiving emails and other communications from the campaign and was “excluded from participating in the communications work of the inauguration or in any capacity.”

“Plaintiff immediately and inexplicably stopped receiving emails and other communications from the Campaign and TFA, including about projects on which she was currently working,” the complaint said.

The suit also claims that she was “prohibited from making previously scheduled television appearances on or around Inauguration Day.”

Moreover, Delgado, a Harvard graduate who practiced law in New York, claimed that she was discouraged by senior advisers to seek a position in the White House despite her expressing interest repeatedly.

Miller, who is married and has publicly admitted that the child is his, allegedly told Delgado that she couldn’t be seen “waddling around the White House pregnant” after she informed him about the pregnancy, the complaint said. Similarly, Spicer allegedly told her that the White House was “no place for a new mom” while encouraging her to focus on options outside the White House.

She claimed that despite her being vocally supportive of Trump, she was completely ignored for a position in the White House because of her pregnancy even though several RNC employees who had been critical of Trump were given high-ranking and well-paying jobs in the White House, the complaint said.

Delgado also alleged in the suit that she was retaliated against for making a complaint about the alleged discrimination and for having expressing intent to file a complaint at the New York City Commission of Human Rights.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.