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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration wants all current and future federal employees to sign non-disclosure agreements, part of a continuing crackdown on leaks to the media.The notice in the Federal Register from the Office of Personnel Management posted Tuesday asked for comment on a draft NDA to be used by federal agencies for “both new and existing employees.”“The form is intended to document Federal employees’ acknowledgment of, and agreement to comply with, current legal obligations to safeguard non-public, confidential, or proprietary information, created or obtained through their official duties, while expressly preserving the right to make disclosures authorized by law,” the notice said.The OPM noted “several recent instances” where internal agency communications related to rulemaking and policy development were disclosed without authorization. It also discussed specific instances in which federal employees at the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security disclosed information without authorization about planned immigration enforcement actions.
In one case, the New York Times and Washington Post received unauthorized information on the U.S. raid on Venezuela this past January and delayed “publishing what they knew to avoid endangering U.S. troops,” the OPM request for comment said.
