The Latest People Stiffed By Donald Trump — His Own Advisers: Report

Donald Trump's business career is littered with claims from plumbers, electricians and other contractors who were never paid for work done for the GOP presidential nominee. A USA Today investigation earlier this summer found "hundreds" of people, and thousands of lawsuits, that said Trump businesses regularly stiffed companies or individuals on compensation.

Now, similar allegations are arising from a new group of people: his own policymakers.

The Washington Post's Josh Rogin dropped a big story Thursday about workers who were based out of a Trump campaign policy office in Alexandria, Virginia. These people did nitty-gritty campaign work that largely went unnoticed and uncredited — crafting policy memos, arranging surrogate messaging, organizing the Republican National Convention.

Workers told the Post — mostly anonymously, since they had signed non-disclosure agreements — that they were promised payment that never came.

The office was led by Rick Dearborn, chief of staff to Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, and John Mashburn, former chief of staff for North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis. Those men, the workers say, told the staffers money would come, but they have never been paid.

Most of the office's staff quit after the convention.

“It’s a complete disaster,” a person identified as a "disgruntled former adviser" told the Post. “They use and abuse people. The policy office fell apart in August when the promised checks weren’t delivered.”

The workers never signed any formal agreement, staffers told the Post, but said they were promised payment verbally. Given their qualifications, the workers would likely have been paid by most any campaign.

“I heard it from Dearborn, I heard it from Mashburn. It was understood that we would be paid. The campaign never discussed how much the pay would be. It was never in writing,” one former worker told the Post. “There were some people who were treating it as a full-time job. I suspect that those people were quite astonished when the pay didn’t come through.”

Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller told the Post the workers were never promised payment, verbally or otherwise.

“The policy shop has been very successful with the campaign. It’s been a large part of the reason Trump has gone on such a positive run over the month of August,” Miller said. “Following the convention, much of the activity has gravitated towards New York, simply because that’s where the full-time multi-floored campaign operation was set up.”

The office still exists and is filled with "a few" workers, according to the Post, many of whom work part-time or on a volunteer basis.

Read the full Washington Post story here.

Image via Gage Skidmore, Flickr, used under Creative Commons