Trump campaign settles lawsuit, voids NDAs

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Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in front of his plane, March 12, 2016 in Vandalia, Ohio.

Brooks Kraft | Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, as part of a $450,000 settlement of a class-action lawsuit by a former campaign aide, agreed to void non-disclosure agreements signed by hundreds of campaign workers and volunteers as a condition of their employment.

The settlement, announced Friday in a court filing, ends a lawsuit filed by former Trump campaign aide Jessica Denson in US District Court in Manhattan.

The settlement effectively voids all other NDAs signed by Trump campaign employees, potentially opening the door for them to publicly discuss events related to the 2016 race, and Trump himself, when no fear of his potentially financially damaging legal retaliation.

Trump, who defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 race for the White House, has for decades required people working for him to sign NDAs. In November, he announced that he would seek the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

“This compromise is in fact a total victory for Jessica Denson, and all 2016 Trump campaign workers,” said David Bowles, an attorney for Denson.

“The Trump NDA is invalid and unenforceable, and campaign workers should not have to live under its shadow,” Bowles said.

Representatives for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement, which was first reported Friday by the Bloomberg news service.

Attorneys for the campaign said in a court filing that “the Campaign represents that it has voluntarily informed all of these employees, contractors, and volunteers in a signed letter that they are ‘ no longer bound by non-disclosure and non-disparagement provisions.'”

In April, an arbitrator ordered Trump’s 2016 campaign to pay $1.3 million in legal fees to Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former “Apprentice” star who the campaign unsuccessfully sued over a book about his tenure as a White House advisor.

That award came months after the same arbitrator ruled that the non-disclosure agreement he signed while working on the Trump campaign was invalid under New York law, citing the ruling regarding Denson’s agreement.

Denson filed her lawsuit in 2020, claiming the Trump campaign tried to silence her after she went public with allegations that she was the target of abusive treatment and sexual discrimination by another campaign member.

Denson’s lawyers said in court filings that the NDAs he and others signed were too broad under the law.

The attorneys cited the language preventing disclosure of information “that Mr. Trump insists remain private” and barring anything that might be “derogatory.[ing] or disparage[ing] in public” about him.

Judge Paul Gardephe declared in a March 2021 decision that the non-disclosure and non-disparagement provisions for Denson were invalid, setting a potential precedent for future cases regarding NDAs.

The Trump campaign will pay $450,000 in the settlement, most of which will cover Denson’s attorneys’ fees and costs.

Denson himself will get $25,000 under the deal.

Before the settlement, the Trump campaign said in 2016 that it would release all employees, contractors and volunteers from any nondisclosure or nondisclosure agreements.

Before the agreement was finalized, the Trump campaign tried to seal the financial terms of the settlement on the grounds that it could harm its ability to negotiate similar legal settlements in the future.

Gardephe denied that request last month.

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