Former Trump campaign staffer Jessica Denson on Friday claimed that Camilo Sandoval, a former senior staffer at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) she says harassed her, also tried to steal and hack her electronic devices.
Denson sued the Trump campaign for $25 million in 2017 after she alleged that Sandoval harassed, slandered and sexually discriminated against her. Sandoval was tapped to serve as acting chief information officer at the VA in April and was replaced by a permanent staffer last month.
{mosads}“He could not stand that a woman who he had hired essentially to be a prop in his data department got a meaningful promotion and was demonstrating her value, and he launched an all-out assault on my character, he tried to steal my personal laptop, he tried to engage other staffers in this theft and hacking of my devices,” Denson said on CNN Friday.
“I went to the campaign, thinking that they would support and protect me, and instead the chief information officer, Jeff DeWit, and the human resources director, Lucia Castellano, completely retaliated against me, took away all the work I was doing, banned me from Trump Tower, told people to keep me away from Donald Trump and ultimately prevented me from being able to continue any kind of career or opportunity to serve in the administration.”
Denson, who had worked as a phone bank administrator before being promoted as a Hispanic engagement director on the campaign, claimed that Sandoval threatened to fire her and began spreading rumors around the campaign in an attempt to undermine her reputation.
Denson filed a class action lawsuit against the Trump campaign Wednesday seeking to invalidate the nondisclosure agreements it made staffers and volunteers sign prior to their hiring. The suit says the agreements were “impermissibly vague” and prevented staffers from speaking out about workplace misconduct.
“In retrospect, what I feel is that these NDAs created an environment where people like Camilo Sandoval, who wanted to commit abuses on other people, felt they could act with impunity and engage in illegal conduct and it would never see the light of day,” Denson added Friday.