A retired federal judge shaded President Donald Trump’s attempt to muzzle federal workers by making them sign nondisclosure agreements during an interview on MS NOW’s “The Weekend: Primetime.”
Last week, the Office of Professional Management published a public notice of its intent to promulgate a rule prohibiting federal workers from publicly disclosing certain information. Shira Scheindlin, a former district judge in the Southern District of New York, told MS NOW’s Catherine Rampell that the move serves no “legitimate purpose” other than to intimidate federal workers so that they don’t become future whistleblowers.
“What the purpose is, in my opinion, is to make government employees afraid to complain, afraid to point out abuse in their departments, afraid to come forward and reveal to the rest of us what’s going on inside our government,” Scheindlin said. “That seems to be the real purpose. It’s to shut them down.”
Trump has a long history of using nondisclosure agreements in his career. When Trump was a private citizen, he had employees at the Trump Organization, and he had political aides sign the agreements since entering politics, NPR reported.
Scheindlin also suggested that the move could create legal issues for the Trump administration.
“It’s really impinging on their First Amendment rights,” she said. “It’s impinging on the right of an employee who sees something wrong to speak about it. It’s another very bad idea, in my opinion.”
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