U.S. sues ex-Trump aide Omarosa

June 25 (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday sued Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former aide to President Donald Trump and reality television star, saying she knowingly failed to file a required public financial disclosure report after she left the White House.

The government is seeking a civil fine of up to $50,000 from Omarosa, who spent 11 months as director of communications in the White House Office of Public Liaison before her December 2017 dismissal.

According to the complaint, Omarosa violated the Ethics in Government Act by failing to file the report, which was required because her salary was above a $124,406 cutoff, despite several oral and written reminders from White House ethics lawyers.

Representatives for Omarosa, as she is typically known, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A lawyer who has represented her in other matters did not immediately respond to similar requests.

Omarosa initially shot to fame as a contestant in the first season of Trump's reality TV show "The Apprentice" in 2004, and became one of Trump's most visible African-American supporters during his successful 2016 presidential bid.

But she had what appeared to be an ambiguous role at the White House, where the New York Times said she was a difficult colleague and had been on former chief of staff John Kelly's "no fly list" of aides he deemed unfit to attend serious meetings.

After leaving the White House, she appeared on the CBS reality show "Big Brother," drawing attention for condemning Trump and his administration.

Omarosa also published a memoir, "Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House," last August.

According to the complaint filed with the federal court in Washington, D.C., Omarosa's financial disclosure report had been due by Jan. 18, 2018, one month after she left the White House.

The complaint said the White House later referred the matter to the Department of Justice, and the lawsuit was authorized on March 17, 2019, nearly a year after Omarosa had twice acknowledged receiving reminders to file the report.

The case is U.S. v. Manigault Newman, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, No. 19-01868. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York Editing by Leslie Adler and Phil Berlowitz)