Donald Trump’s administration is proposing a government-wide mandate to require all federal workers to sign non-disclosure agreements to prevent the spread of “confidential government information” to journalists.
Tuesday’s draft notice of the proposal would require new and existing workers to sign an agreement to “safeguard” a broad range of government information from reaching the public after a series of high-profile “leaks” to news organizations.
The document broadly defines “confidential government information” to include a vast amount of information, documents and communications beyond typical classified and unclassified labels.
That information could include all “non-public, confidential or proprietary information” or “any sensitive, pre-decisional or deliberative material that is not currently publicly available and should not be disclosed under applicable law.”
Federal agencies would have “discretion” as to whether to implement NDAs, but a government-wide NDA “will promote consistency across government, better protect confidential information, and better inform federal employees of their rights and obligations regarding confidential information,” according to the document.
Even former government employees would need “written permission from an authorized agency official” to speak to journalists about information deemed “confidential” under the draft’s terms — or they could be subject to civil and criminal penalties.
OPM director Scott Kupor said in a statement that “the federal government should not be held to a lower standard” when it comes to NDAs like those used in “much of the private sector” to handle sensitive company information.
“Americans should be able to trust that their personal data and sensitive government information are being handled responsibly,” he said. “This proposal reinforces accountability across the federal workforce while helping agencies better protect against unauthorized disclosures.”
Freedom of the Press Foundation’s Lauren Harper called the idea of “not just absurd, it’s unnecessary and dangerously secretive.”
“This policy, from a president who has previously attempted to impose oppressive, corporate-style confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements on federal employees, would kneecap whistleblower protections, undermine the First Amendment, and wrongly inhibit the public’s right to know,” she said in statement.
Its “sole intent” is to “protect the administration from the leak of embarrassing, politically damaging, or unlawful information,” she said.
The proposal escalates Trump’s long-running war with news outlets and journalists over critical and antagonistic coverage of the president, his administration and his businesses.
The president has filed several multi-billion dollar lawsuits against news outlets in an apparent effort to control their coverage while he routinely personally attacks reporters. Trump sought to ban the Associated Press from the White House press pool, the Department of Defense implemented sweeping restrictions at the Pentagon, and the Department of Justice is embroiled in an ongoing legal battle over the confiscation of a Washington Post reporter’s computer and phone over her reporting on federal workers.
Tuesday’s document cites several instances in which “internal agency communications related to rulemaking and policy development were disclosed without authorization,” including details about federal law enforcement raids and the names of Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees — disclosures that “jeopardized the safety of the agents,” according to the Trump administration.
“Unauthorized disclosures … disrupt agency operations and erode public trust,” the document states. “Such disclosures risk chilling candid interagency feedback, disrupting orderly decision-making, and weakening trust within and among federal agencies.”
The government is restricted on how far it can go to prevent employees from speaking out; federal whistleblower protections prohibit the government from retaliating against workers who report fraud, abuse and misconduct to internal watchdog agencies and members of Congress.
The proposal says it “expressly” does not apply in those cases, but the Trump administration has been accused of stripping whistleblower protections for workers who speak out against his administration and retaliating against the lawyers who represent them.
It’s also not the first time the administration has wielded NDA threats to prevent the spread of internal information.
The Pentagon and FBI have reportedly imposed NDAs and polygraph testing in an effort to identify sources of damaging internal leaks, and the Department of Veterans Affairs required officials to sign agreements to prevent the release of information about the government’s proposed layoffs.
The government will open a 30-day public comment period before the proposal is formalized.
