A former Trump campaign staffer filed a lawsuit Wednesday claiming that the campaign’s state director for North Carolina threatened him with a gun in February.
According to the lawsuit, Vincent Bordini, an IT worker for Trump’s North Carolina operation, was accompanying state director Earl Phillip on a trip to South Carolina for the campaign. As the filing alleges in some remarkably informal, awkward prose, “the two men rolled down the South Carolina roads” without incident before Phillip abruptly turned on Bordini and pressed a gun into his kneecap:
The barrel’s pressure crinkled Vincent’s blue jeans. Phillip ominously stared sidewise at Vincent while driving the Jeep down the road and the barrel into Vincent.
Vincent froze. Phillip’s gun was loaded and the safety was off. A bump in the road would likely result in a bullet hole, and worse, in Vincent’s knee.
Fortunately for Vincent, the drive ended without a bullet hole, or worse, being inflicted upon his knee. “Once the initial shock wore off, Vincent said, ‘What the fuck are you doing?’ ” the lawsuit states. “Phillip put the gun away as if nothing had happened.”
The lawsuit notes that the incident took place after Phillip began making more imposing demands on Bordini, including asking him to accompany him to every campaign event. The incident was allegedly reported to Trump’s western North Carolina regional director, Trump’s then-national field director Stuart Jolly, and then-Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, all of whom reportedly did nothing, although Lewandowski allegedly told Bordini that his complaint would be taken seriously.
The lawsuit goes on to say that other campaign staffers had reported being threatened by Phillip with a gun, including staffers that claimed Phillip had at times started “yelling and screaming with anger while brandishing a pistol.”
Last week, Politico reported that Phillip had been replaced as North Carolina director by Jason Simmons and that day-to-day operations in the North Carolina office had already been turned over to Deputy State Director Taylor Playforth prior to his departure. A local activist was quoted as saying Phillip “had a difficulty relating to the grassroots activists and did not share a lot of information.” Phillip was then promoted to a national campaign post as the deputy chair of Trump’s National Diversity Coalition. He resigned Thursday morning in the wake of the lawsuit.
