Trump floats NDAs for federal workers to stop press leaks

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Trump administration is drafting a universal nondisclosure agreement that could apply to all federal workers in an effort to address the “widespread” problem of leaks from government agencies, according to documents published Tuesday.

Plans for a government-wide NDA come as the administration eyes new ways to clamp down on so-called leakers in the federal workforce who in the last year have disclosed confidential information about President Donald Trump’s immigration policy and military plans to members of the media.

In a draft document published to the Federal Register Tuesday morning, the Office of Personnel Management issued notice of the proposed global NDA, explaining that the policy would “promote consistency” across the federal government and “better protect confidential information.”

The Trump administration pointed to “several recent instances” in which federal employees shared confidential information from government agencies without authorization, arguing that those incidents underscored the need for a universally applicable NDA.

In one instance, the White House cited unauthorized leaks from the Pentagon to the press about the Trump administration’s January raid on Venezuela, which they said endangered American soldiers. In another, the administration pointed to a January disclosure in which a government employee reportedly revealed the names of thousands of immigration enforcement agents.

“Such disclosures risk chilling candid interagency feedback, disrupting orderly decisionmaking and weakening trust within and among federal agencies,” the White House wrote.

The proposed government NDA, the administration said, would be optional for adoption by federal agencies. If accepted, the form would be administered to newly hired employees as part of the onboarding process — though current government workers would also be required to sign NDAs.

Federal law already gives the White House authority to set regulations governing who is eligible to work for the federal government, OPM argued, and “longstanding legal requirements” block government workers from disclosing nonpublic information. The proposed universal NDA, the administration claimed, would merely provide federal agencies with a standardized form in which employees acknowledge existing legal obligations.

The form would also preserve federal workers’ right to “make disclosures authorized by law,” such as protected whistleblower reports.

And the Trump administration argued such a move already has precedent within the federal government. The Supreme Court, OPM pointed out, now requires its staff to sign NDAs following the controversial 2022 leak of the justices’ ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — the case which overturned the constitutional right to abortion.

The White House argued that the Dobbs decision leak resulted in “weeks and months” of threats against the Supreme Court and its justices. It tied the disclosure to would-be assassin Nicholas Roske, who was arrested outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home and who the administration said was “specifically motivated” to target the jurist by the high court’s opinion in that case.

Since Trump returned to office last year, the president and top administration officials have said they would aggressively target so-called “leakers” within the government — particularly those who have disclosed information to the press. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has floated plans to issue polygraph tests to Pentagon staffers, and the Homeland Security Department said it would conduct internal investigations into leaks from the agency about immigration operations.

The FBI in January raided the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson in connection with a leak investigation, a move universally condemned by press freedom advocates. Federal agents seized Natanson’s phone and computers during the raid, but federal judges have repeatedly ruled that the government cannot search her devices.

Though the Trump administration has taken a tough stance on leaks, top officials have made some high-profile security flubs of their own.

The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed in March 2025 that he had been mistakenly added to a group chat on encrypted messaging platform Signal that included Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, former national security adviser Michael Waltz and outgoing director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

The Trump administration has long said that no classified information was disclosed in the Signal chat — though Goldberg reported at the time that the Trump officials, in full view of a reporter, had discussed plans for military strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

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