Trump forces White House staff to sign non-disclosure agreement

WASHINGTON: President Trump is known to have enforced abundant non-disclosure agreements with his business associates, campaign staff and women he has had affairs with. Recently, he has implied the same rule for his White House Staff and has asked them to sign confidentiality agreements, according to a column in Washington Post.

The President of USA has asked the staff of the White House to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), violation of which would lead to a penalty of $10 million and will be paid to the government.

The NDA’s are similar to those signed by the staff during the campaign and transition. The NDAs will be applicable even after the employees leave office or Trump leaves office. The move came in following the many leaks in the early months of trump’s administration.

However, according to Ben Wizner, Director ACLU Speech, privacy and technology project, “Public employees can’t be gagged by private agreements. These so-called NDAs are unconstitutional and unenforceable.”

Legal officials are questioning whether the agreement is applicable to government officials under the constitutions free-speech protection.