I was thinking about how (keeping politics out of it) entertaining tell all books about working in the White House would be from those currently or until recently working there.
I was wondering about non-disclosure agreements. Leaving out any classified information or lawyer/client confidentiality, is there any legal prohibition from disclosing what happened in the White House? Is there anything that all employees have to sign from the government itself? Can President Smith make those he hires sign a personal NDA if they are drawing their salary from the government? (Insert any questions I forgot about prohibitions on White House employees or administration appointees speaking out here)
An NDA is a civil contract so breaching one is (usually*) not a crime but it may entail you having to pay damages. There also seems to be little case law on breaking an NDA when reporting a crime (e.g. sexual harassment).
Because there is no prior restraint (mostly) there is not much anyone can do to stop the person who is going to break an NDA. They can only try to punish them for it after the fact.
*- It can be a crime if the person breaking the NDA obtained the information illegally such as stealing company documents or violating government secrecy laws.
I have a family member who worked in the White House for about a year early in the administration. He was basically one level below the names you hear in the news and reported to a person in the cabinet. Senior staff.
I asked him directly if he had to sign an NDA and he said no. I’m sure some things are classified, but no NDA.
That’s the kind of thing I’m looking for. The other layer of question is if any president can add that requirement or would it be against government regulation or law?
There is no blanket prohibition on federal employees disclosing information if it does not involve classified, CUI, or other data that carries specific labels. Some Trump White House staff were required to sign an NDA. These are not agreements that were executed on behalf of the government, these are agreements with Trump. There is some question about whether they are enforceable but I don’t think any of them have yet been tested in the courts.
I signed a government NDA for a specific deployment I was on that covered unclassified information as well as classified. There were criminal penalties involved in breaking it. You answered in general about NDAs and civil law.
I have not heard of a government NDA for unclassified information with criminal penalties. That sounds like a very unusual and specific thing. If it related to a deployment and they didn’t want it disclosed, I would think they would classify it. But I haven’t done that type of thing.
The Slate article seems to end with the assertion that if it’s not classified, or in the process of being classified, the government cannot stop someone from talking about it or penalize them for doing so.
After all, the first amendment presumably trumps (sorry) everything. The employee is paid by the taxpayer, not Trump personally. Thus, government rules apply - the government cannot stifle free speech unless it reveals classified information, which is secret because it may harm national security.
It works for people like Trump and others (Hollywood celebrities often have NDA’s with personal staff to prevent gossip magazines from getting juicy details). But that is a personal contract between two people - the consideration is “I give you a salary, you give me your silence”. If the person is being paid by the US government, then the politician demanding silence is not actually providing a consideration (or, quid pro quo ) for the silence. I wonder if they can even pay someone personally for their silence and an NDA, or would that be bribing a government employee? I assume there are rules about what a government employee can make on the side?
I would imagine when “soldier” is the keyword, a lot more likely what happens is going to be considered classified. After all, sometimes even the names of participants in certain actions are not details the government wants broadcast.
That’s what I gather from the articles too and it makes sense.
There are classifications below Secret and Top Secret. Revealing Confidential and FOUO I formation is not as serious but a service member can get in trouble for it.
That’s something I was wondering as well. IANAL, but it seems to me that an NDA, like any contract, cannot be valid if the goal is to achieve an illegal end (i.e. fraud or to prevent the reporting of a crime).
There are also restrictions on the application of NDAs for government employees, and in many cases, corporate employees as well.
In any case, it’s not like tv and film where the company or government agency pulls out some NDA for a character to sign with the ominous implication that it gives them the right to lock the person up and throw away the room.