Lewandowski on White House non-disclosure agreements: 'I don't know if they're valid whatsoever'

[DonViejo]

BY BRETT SAMUELS - 08/15/18 11:15 AM EDT

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski on Wednesday questioned whether the non-disclosure agreements signed by staffers in President Trump's White House are even enforceable.

"As it relates to a non-disclosure agreement for government employees — and I’m not an attorney just to be clear — I don’t know if they’re valid whatsoever," Lewandowski told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast.

"Other than the disclosing of classified information — which is a crime in and of itself, has nothing to do with an non-disclosure agreement — I don’t know how you hold a public employee, a government employee, accountable to a nondisclosure agreement," he continued.

The ethics and legality of requiring White House staffers to sign nondisclosure agreements has emerged as a point of contention after former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman published a new book filled with explosive claims about her time on the Trump campaign and as an aide in the Trump administration.

more
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/401935-lewandowski-on-white-house-non-disclosure-agreements-i-dont-know-if

[exboyfil]

1. On its face it seems to be an impeachable offense

You can't bind individuals in public service to NDAs that protect the interests of their superiors. You would get fired if you, as a manager, tried to do that with an employee without the authorization of the ownership. In spite of what Trump thinks, he does not own the US government. The GOP does not either. At least not yet.

[gratuitous]

2. And yet, in spite of this

I can't escape the feeling that the popular media will report that NDAs for government employees isn't unusual, because after all, if someone divulges classified information after they leave government service, they're criminally liable. So you know, it's all so very complicated we in the media can't unravel it. So we'll just pretend, along with the remaining Trump administration mouthpieces, that Newman and others like her are squealing rats who should be arrested, tried, and locked up for something.