Tom Arnold appears to be rethinking his refusal to release the recordings of Donald Trump using racial slurs and making other offensive statements.
According to Arnold, his home received a voicemail from the president-elect’s team threatening a defamation lawsuit over his claims made on Dori Monson’s KIRO-AM radio program on Dec.16. He revealed that he has a copy of these statements made by Trump while he was the host of The Apprentice.
“Wife told me there’s house line VM from Trump Camp about defamation suit so it’s on,” Arnold tweeted late Tuesday night. “Open Apprentice vaults 4 discovery! Miss Universe too!!”
READ MORE: Tom Arnold says he has offensive ‘Apprentice’ recordings of Donald Trump
Another tweet sent by Arnold an hour prior alluded to the existence of another video of Trump.
READ MORE: Emma Stone has had her jokes ‘given away’ to male co-stars
The True Life actor previously said that the recordings are a compilation of various statements Trump made on camera that never aired, and he claims that the recordings have circulated within the entertainment industry.
“It was him sitting in that chair saying the N-word, saying the C-word, calling his son a retard,” Arnold claims. “Just being so mean to his own children.”
Arnold alleges that he was called on Nov. 6 by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s agent, who was sitting with Hillary Clinton at the time, and asked to release the recordings. He refused to do it at the time because he wanted to protect the show’s employees, who were the ones responsible for crafting the video compilation.
“They said, ‘I need you to release him saying the N-word,’” Arnold recalls. “I said, ‘Well, now these people – two editors and an associate producer — are scared to death. They’re scared of his people, they’re scared they’ll never work again, there’s a $5 million confidentiality agreement.’”
READ MORE: Lena Dunham apologizes after controversial abortion comments
If Arnold were to release the recordings, it wouldn’t be the first.
A political firestorm was sparked by a 2005 video obtained and released on Oct.7 by The Washington Post and NBC News. In the video, Trump, who was married to his current wife at the time, is heard describing attempts to have sex with a married woman to Billy Bush. He also brags about women letting him kiss them and grab their genitals because he is famous.
WATCH BELOW: Donald Trump caught making vulgar comments about women in 2005 leaked tape
“When you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything,” Trump says in the video. He adds seconds later: “Grab them by the p—-. You can do anything.” He said of his impulse to kiss beautiful women: “I don’t even wait.”
The 2005 tape of Trump and Bush threatened to shatter his campaign and after the leak there were calls for producers of Apprentice to release unaired footage of the show.
Mark Burnett, reality television producer, has said he cannot release any unaired recordings of Trump on Apprentice, amid speculation the tapes of the embattled Republican nominee contain more damaging material.
“Despite reports to the contrary, Mark Burnett does not have the ability nor the right to release footage or other material from The Apprentice. Various contractual and legal requirements also restrict MGM’s ability to release such material,” MGM and Burnett said in a joint statement on Oct.10, which was reported previously by Global News. “The recent claims that Mark Burnett has threatened anyone with litigation if they were to leak such material are completely and unequivocally false.”
It remains unclear if Arnold will release the recordings.
With files from Andrew Russell
Comments