Just three months into Donald Trump’s second term, the Department of Veterans Affairs did something unusual: It required a group of employees working on the administration’s layoff plans to sign nondisclosure agreements.

A report in Government Executive described the move as “highly unusual,” adding that NDAs are “typically limited to procurement-sensitive discussions and national security settings that include classified information.”

In the months that followed, there were sporadic related reports — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, for example, was so preoccupied with staunching leaks that he, too, took steps to use NDAs broadly — but it was tough to predict just how far the Republican administration was prepared to go.

MS NOW reported:

In a draft notice obtained by MS NOW, the Office of Personnel Management requests comment on a draft NDA for use by federal agencies. The NDA would bar federal employees from sharing “confidential government information,” in an effort to curb leaks to the media.

The draft cites several high-profile leaks that have occurred in the past year, including “unauthorized disclosures” from federal workers “divulging the secret U.S. raid on Venezuela prior to it occurring.”

Under the draft notice, all federal workers could be blocked from sharing “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.”

What’s more, the restrictions would apply not only to the existing federal workforce, but also to those who leave their positions for jobs elsewhere. Those who are found to have broken the agreements would be subject to financial penalties, among other things.

For all of Team Trump’s obsessive boasts about being the “most transparent” administration ever, we’re frequently confronted with evidence to the contrary.

The Washington Post, which was first to report on the plans, noted that the president has long relied on NDAs as a weapon against criticism, including prior to his political career: “Signatories include ex-wives, contestants in the reality TV show ‘The Apprentice’ and even campaign staffers.”

Time will tell what becomes of the policy, but it’s easy to see a legal fight on the horizon.

Esha Bhandari, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, told the Post that the government cannot “muzzle” government workers with NDAs.

“Such broad gag orders would leave the public in the dark about how the government works, preventing the kind of informed debate that is critical to democratic accountability,” Bhandari said. “The government can’t shroud itself in secrecy in a democracy.”

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