White House issues NDAs to all US employees | Business and Financial Issues

The White House is threatening to take legal action against the leaked staff, in an effort to curb the spread of the media.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has issued guidance to government employees that would require employees to sign non-disclosure agreements not to speak to the media without permission.

The new proposal, which was announced on Tuesday by the Office of the Public Accountant, says the White House could take legal action against employees who violate it.

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It also says the US government should have a “compensation” for disclosing information, but it’s not clear what that means. OPM did not immediately comment.

The document did not specify when the NDA would come into effect. There will be a 30-day public comment period after the rule is published in the Federal Register. All organizations must agree to follow the guidelines.

“The move was based on concerns that the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive government information is disrupting agency operations and creating a lack of trust in the government,” said OPM spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover.

The order is the latest move by the Trump White House to have more control over the flow of information to the public, which has come from restricting the media from. press room at the Pentagon cut costs for public services such as PBS and NPR.

It is already illegal to make government secrets private. Trump was impeached in 2023 for breaching privacy government documents.

But the idea expands the meaning of mystery beyond intellectual circles.

The NDAs will describe “information related to the organization’s internal operations, personnel matters, stock purchase procedures, or any sensitive, decision-making or discussion matter that is not publicly available and should not be disclosed under applicable law”.

The agreements may also affect former employees who signed them, requiring them to obtain written consent before speaking to the media about the matter.

Federal law prohibits federal retaliation against government employees who disclose fraud, abuse and maltreatment in their workplaces to internal government regulators and Congress. The NDA may not apply to these disclosures, depending on the contract.

Since taking office, Trump has waged a campaign against the media and people he sees as his most critical critics. He has filed lawsuits against news outlets, denounced the media as “fake news,” and attacked journalists.

“The idea of ​​the ‘most transparent administration in history’ to have millions of civil servants sign a blanket NDA is absurd, unnecessary and cryptic,” said Lauren Harper of the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) in a statement to Al Jazeera.

“This plan, coming from a president who has done it before he tried forcing public officials to maintain strict, corporate-like secrecy and non-disclosure would result in public ignorance, the First Amendment, and the public’s inability to know what to do.”

Trump has followed the words of his critics.

In April, Trump threatened pull certificates of ABC stations after late night host Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about First Lady Melania Trump.

The White House also barred The Associated Press from the White House press conference and banned reporters from going to the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US military, a law that federal courts have ruled unconstitutional.

Last year, the Trump administration launched a threat to deport pro-Palestinians student advocates who live in the US but are not US citizens.