President Trump required senior White House staffers to sign nondisclosure agreements that extend past his presidency, according to a reported column in The Washington Post.
The Post’s Ruth Marcus reported on Sunday that the staffers were required to sign the agreements during the early months of Trump’s presidency, promising not to share confidential information at the risk of penalty.
One person who signed the agreement said it was similar to those signed during the campaign and transition.
“I remember the president saying, ‘Has everybody signed a confidentiality agreement like they did during the campaign or we had at Trump Tower?’ ” the individual told the Post.
Some of the staffers were reportedly hesitant to sign the agreements, but did so after pressure from then-chief of staff Reince Priebus and the White House counsel.
Those staffers believed that it would be nearly impossible to enforce the agreements.
The source also told the Post that the agreement was supposed to extend past Trump’s time in office, a move the newspaper described as “extraordinary.”
A draft of the agreement penalized staffers $10 million, to be paid to the federal government, for sharing confidential information.
That information was defined as “all nonpublic information I learn of or gain access to in the course of my official duties in the service of the United States Government on White House staff,” including “communications … with members of the press” and “with employees of federal, state, and local governments.”
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Trump forced staff to sign nondisclosure agreements that last past his presidency: report https://t.co/1e6TAo2sWV pic.twitter.com/P69VsEcrNA
— The Hill (@thehill) March 18, 2018
Seems to me like it would be a good idea for the WH to disclose the non-disclosure agreement that staff were pressured to sign. The actual document can’t be worse than the draft I saw… https://t.co/LOJtxSLBu7
— Ruth Marcus (@RuthMarcus) March 18, 2018
While not ideal, I saw no reason why Trump couldn't do this with campaign or even transition employees. But having federal employees sign these is a violation of the public interest. https://t.co/NOxkNi8vce
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) March 18, 2018
You want to sign an NDA to work for the Trunp campaign or Trump org? K, whatever. For the fed gov? Nope. You are accountable to taxpayers.
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) March 18, 2018
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