Corey Lewandowski is a CNN contributor even though he’s subject to a nondisclosure agreement legally prohibiting him from criticizing Trump, his family, or any of his businesses. Suffice it to say Trump’s former campaign manager has lived up to his end of the bargain — Lewandowski basically serves as a paid Trump campaign source during his CNN appearances.
On the other side of the spectrum, Trump recently filed a $10 million lawsuit against former senior campaign consultant Sam Nunberg for allegedly violating that same NDA. As ThinkProgress previously wrote, Trump accused Nunberg of “leaking information to the New York Post about a public fight and romantic affair between two other Trump campaign staffers in May.”
Both Lewandowski and Nunberg were high-ranking Trump staffers, and it’s somewhat understandable Trump wants to prevent the sort of sensitive information they’re privy to from going public. But on Thursday, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that even online volunteers who merely want to phone bank for Trump must sign that same more than 2,200 word NDA, even though most of them will never meet Trump or his family.
The agreement — you can read it in full here— legally prohibits volunteers from disclosing Trump’s confidential information in perpetuity:
And also prohibits them from saying anything bad about Trump — forever:
If volunteers violate the agreement as Nunberg is accused to have done, they’re subject to the sort of financial penalties he faces:
With litigation being settled in private arbitration:
The Enquirer reports that the agreement “is a required part of the sign-up process for Trump Red Dialer, an online call system that connects volunteers for the Republican presidential candidate with potential voters,” and that a spokesman dodged a question about why they’re necessary.
“We are running a state-of-the-art campaign for Mr. Trump that involves best-in-market volunteer platforms, and it is attracting thousands of volunteers who are tired of the same old Washington corruption and back room deals and are securing votes for a change in November,” Trump Ohio spokesman Seth Unger said.
Requiring volunteers to sign such nondisclosure agreements is unusual. Hillary Clinton’s campaign, for instance, doesn’t require phone bank volunteers to sign any sort of agreement.
After publication, it was brought to our attention that this story was first reported by the Daily Dot.