EXCLUSIVE: Former Trump Aide Jason Miller Admits to Hiring Prostitutes in 2015 and 2017
Republican operative
Jason Miller, the former communications chief for the Trump campaign and transition team, said he hired numerous prostitutes and visited “hand job” massage parlors as recently as a few months ago in a new videotaped deposition.
Miller made the admission while testifying on May 30 in Washington D.C. in connection to his lawsuit against the digital media company Gizmodo — a case that is being litigated in Southern Florida’s District Court. Despite Miller’s counsel calling for a protective order to make the deposition confidential, a redacted version was made public on July 11.
The suit accuses Gizmodo of defaming Miller with a story citing an allegation he slipped an “abortion pill” to a Florida strip club dancer he impregnated. The story was
based on a sealed court filing. Miller denies the allegation and claims the story is untrue. The lawsuit also names individual defendants
Katherine Krueger, a reporter for Gizmodo’s political site Splinter, and
Will Menaker, the host of the popular leftist podcast Chapo Trap House.
In a
written transcript of the deposition obtained by Mediaite, Miller describes the occasions he paid women for sex since 2001. Soliciting prostitution was, and still is, a crime in the cities where Miller admitted to hiring escorts.
Miller said his most recent visit to a “happy ending” massage parlor came as recently as “a couple of months ago.” He said he recalled having sex with an escort as recently as the spring of 2017 — just a few months after quitting the Trump transition team, where he served as chief spokesman. Trump had named Miller communications director in his new administration, but Miller resigned from the job before the inauguration amid allegations of an affair. He went on to join CNN, where he worked as a commentator in the spring of 2017.
The May deposition details Miller’s multiple extramarital affairs, including his sexual relationships with two subordinates during the 2016 presidential campaign. His relationship with one of these women, former Trump campaign advisor
A.J. Delgado, has been
public knowledge since late 2016. But Miller provided
new information on a second affair with
Catherine Frazier, who worked as a press secretary for Sen.
Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign during Miller’s time leading the candidate’s communications operation. The affairs occurred while his wife,
Kelly Miller, was pregnant and the two were not legally separated.
In a statement to Mediaite, Miller declined to comment on the lawsuit, but admitted to having made mistakes in his life:
“I am not commenting on the lawsuit. I know I am an imperfect person and have made a number of mistakes in my life. I love my family and have spent much of the past two years asking for forgiveness and working to prove my commitment to them and to become a better person for them. I’m extremely grateful we’ve been able to keep our family together. Others I’ve disappointed with my actions will see a pathway toward forgiveness and some may not, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stop trying.”
Frazier did not respond to requests for comment on her alleged affair with Miller. Additionally, the White House did not respond to questions on Miller’s admissions. This article will be updated if either party responds.
Miller’s admissions came about after a particularly brutal line of questioning from Gizmodo’s attorney
Katherine M. Bolger regarding his break up with Frazier, who he split with over his affair with Delgado: “Your mistress got mad at you because she thought you were sleeping with … your [other] mistress; correct?”
After Miller responded with the affirmative, he went on to note, “Those were the two women that I dated or had affairs with. There were other indiscretions that I’ve had.”
The additional indiscretions included going to massage parlors — some “Asian themed” — to receive a “hand job” between five or six times in New York, Miami, and “the broader Washington, D.C. area.” (Miller and his family have resided in an Arlington, Virginia home since 2012).
“It’s not something I’m particularly proud of,” he said after being asked to mention which parlors he visited. “I don’t remember the names.”
He continued by detailing his encounters with what he called escorts: “In 2015, and then I believe again in 2017, I had sex with an escort.” Miller said the fall 2015 and spring 2017 incidents took place in D.C., with the 2017 encounter occurring after Miller’s wife, in the words of Gizmodo’s attorney, “had your daughter” and “after you and your wife decided to try and make things work.”
He then admitted to visiting a massage parlor “a couple of months ago” in New York.
“I’ve obviously made some serious mistakes in my marriage, and we had gotten things back to a really good place,” Miller said. “There wasn’t any of that in — I remember in 2018. We got things back to a — a good place — and I screwed up again this spring.”
Despite significant protest from Miller’s legal counsel,
Shane Vogt — famous for representing
Hulk Hogan in the lawsuit that took down Gawker — Gizmodo’s attorney Bolger cornered Miller into revealing the specifics about his dalliances.
“The question is how much did you pay to have sex with an escort in the spring of 2017?” Bolger asked.
“I think it was something like $2[00] or $300, somewhere in the range,” Miller replied, explaining he “just Googled” for escort services and “initially set up a — like a massage appointment and then we just went from there.”
Miller’s candid admissions teed up a hard swing from Gizmodo’s legal counsel: “You just testified that you had sex with an escort in the spring of 2017. Other than — is that the last time you have been unfaithful to your wife?”
“Other than the massage parlor trip? Yes,” he replied.
Bolger’s questioning then turned to Miller’s attendance at strip clubs. The defamation suit is based on an allegation — which Miller denies — pertaining to his relationship with a Florida dancer. Miller was able to rattle off the names of numerous Sunshine State gentleman’s clubs he has visited, including Thee Dollhouse and 2001 Odyssey in Tampa; the Diamond Club in Orlando; Scarlett’s outside Miami; Rachel’s in Winter Park and Rachel’s in Orlando. Miller also said he went to Flash Dancers in New York in 2016.
Still, Miller insisted his affinity for strip clubs is behind him, stating, “I’m trying to be a better person, and that’s not something that I do anymore.” Most importantly, he denied having a relationship with any strippers.
He went on to note that then-top Trump campaign advisor
Jared Kushner “rightfully chewed me out for some poor decision making” after he
went to the Sapphire strip club in Las Vegas late in the 2016 election with members of the media and Trump campaign staffers, including Delgado and
Jessica Ditto, who currently works as the White House deputy communications director.
As for Miller’s previously undisclosed affair with Cruz campaign staffer Catherine Frazier, he said the relationship began at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner in April 2016 and lasted until roughly late August of that year — all while his wife was pregnant with their second child, who was
born in January 2017.
While direct mentions of Frazier, who now works for GOP strategist
Jeff Roe’s consulting firm Axiom Strategies, were redacted from the public record, sources familiar with their relationship and who have seen the transcript, confirmed Frazier was the Cruz staffer involved with Miller. Frazier, who sources said was also married at the time, has not tweeted in more than two weeks; her disappearance from the social media site where she is normally active occurred a day after the first part of Miller’s deposition became public.
“I’ve been unfaithful to my wife — I had a relationship with [Frazier] in the spring of 2016,” Miller testified.
“She worked with me on the Ted Cruz campaign,” he explained, adding that his relationship with Frazier lasted “a couple of months, I believe” and ended a few weeks after Cruz dropped out of the race. The affair officially ended after Page Six
reported that Miller and Delgado went to a Las Vegas strip club the night before the last election debate. Miller said Frazier subsequently phoned to give him “an earful” that caused their relationship to be “definitively done by that point.”
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