Trump NDAs Scrapped: Hundreds Of 2016 Campaign Staffers Can Now Publicly Criticize Him As Court Finalizes Settlement
Staffers on former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign are now totally free from non-disclosure agreements they signed barring them from taking legal action or publicly disparaging Trump, as a federal judge formalized a settlement agreement Wednesday over a lawsuit claiming the agreements were overly restrictive.
KEY FACTS
- The settlement voids non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements included in employment contracts for Trump 2016 staffers, barring the Trump campaign and any third parties from taking any action to enforce the agreements.
- The settlement—which also involved the Trump campaign paying $450,000 to resolve the claims—was initially reached in January and preliminarily approved in June, but Wednesday’s order finalizes the agreement, and gives ex-staffers more legal protections after the campaign informed them last year they were no longer bound by the agreements.
- According to the lawsuit, which was brought by Jessica Denson, the campaign’s onetime Hispanic outreach director, the NDAs prohibited employees from disclosing any “confidential information” about the campaign or using it to disparage Trump, his family or business, not only during their employment but “at all times thereafter.”
- The non-disparagement agreement stated employees could not “demean or disparage publicly” Trump, his company or family during their work for the campaign and “at all times thereafter.”
- Confidential information was described in the NDA as including “any information with respect to the personal life, political affairs, and/or business affairs of Mr. Trump or of any Family Member,” which Denson argued was overbroad and vague, and the agreement did not contain any exceptions for employees to bring legal action for alleged workplace misconduct.
-The Trump 2024 campaign has not yet responded to a request for comment—but previously argued the case was moot because they’d already freed staffers from the agreements—while Denson said in a statement Wednesday the settlement is “a massive victory for free speech, in the face of a wannabe authoritarian who threatens American democracy to this day.”
