A lawsuit filed in New York by a former spokesperson for Donald Trump alleges that the campaign discriminated against her because of her pregnancy. The former spokeswoman for the 2016 Trump campaign says that several of the campaign’s top advisers pushed her out of key aspects of her position six weeks after Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, shortly following her announcement at work that she was pregnant. Her pregnancy made news elsewhere because she reported that the father of the child was another senior campaign staffer, who was married at the time.
The complaint charges that the Trump transition organization, Trump for America, and several Trump aides were responsible along with the campaign for pregnancy discrimination and sex discrimination. She says that she was stripped of her duties from December 2016 through Trump’s inauguration at the end of January 2017 immediately following the announcement of her pregnancy. She also said that she was suddenly and without warning cut off from emails from both the campaign and transition organization and was not allowed to participate in inaugural communications although she was still ostensibly part of the team. The Trump 2020 campaign, which is run by the same organization as the 2016 campaign, did not yet respond to media inquiries on the case.
Previously, the campaign sought to take the former spokeswoman to arbitration in order to prevent her from speaking publicly about her activities during the campaign. The results of that arbitration have not been publicly announced. In the newer complaint, the woman alleges that the campaign launched the arbitration effort as retaliation after an earlier settlement of the discrimination claims fell apart.
Even women in high-ranking, executive positions or high-profile industries may face sex discrimination on the job. An employment law attorney may help affected employees to take action in response to workplace discrimination.
