Ex-Trump campaign staffer files claim to invalidate all NDAs for campaign workers

A former Trump campaign staffer filed a class action claim to invalidate every nondisclosure agreement that the campaign required its employees and volunteers to sign. 

Jessica Denson, who worked for the Trump campaign in 2016, filed the claim before the American Arbitration Association. The claim was first reported Wednesday by BuzzFeed News. 

{mosads}Denson’s claim said the Trump campaign required every employee, contractor and volunteer to sign a nondisclosure agreement in order to work for the campaign. The agreements prohibit “extraordinarily broad categories of communications and actions” that would otherwise be protected by law, according to the claim. 

The claim argues that the nondisclosure agreements are unenforceable because they are “impermissibly vague” and that they violate federal, state and local public policy. The claim also says that the agreements subject anyone who signs them to “grievous financial penalty for the mere act of criticizing” President Trump or members of his family.

The claim also states that the agreements strip staffers of their right to address “workplace misconduct.”

“Anything and everything they could do will of necessity contain some information that a Trump Person could find disparaging or a disclosure of confidential information. Any complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Department of Labor or National Labor Relations Board, just to name a few, could result in a secret arbitration and a costly award,” the claim reads.

Denson filed a lawsuit in 2017 alleging that she experienced sexual discrimination and harassment while working for the campaign. She was later ordered to pay $50,000 to the campaign for filing that lawsuit because the campaign said it violated the nondisclosure agreement.

The Trump campaign’s requirement for staffers to sign nondisclosure agreements came under scrutiny last year when the campaign filed a claim against former White House aide and campaign staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman, arguing that she breached a nondisclosure agreement with the Trump campaign by publishing a tell-all book.