The U.S. government led by Donald Trump wants all federal employees, both current and future, to sign nondisclosure agreements as part of an aggressive strategy to combat leaks of information to the media.
A notice published today in the Federal Register by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) requested comments on a draft nondisclosure agreement to be used by federal agencies for “new and former employees.”
The form aims to document the acknowledgment and agreement of federal employees to comply with existing legal obligations to protect non-public, confidential, or proprietary information created or obtained through their official duties, while expressly preserving the right to make legally authorized disclosures.
The notice requests comments on several issues, including whether the nondisclosure agreement should cover only unclassified information and what appropriate actions, if any, agencies should consider for employees who choose not to sign.
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The OPM noted several recent instances where internal agency communications related to the drafting of regulations and policies were released without authorization.
The report also addressed specific cases where federal employees from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security disclosed information about planned immigration enforcement actions without authorization.
In one case, the New York Times and the Washington Post received unauthorized information about the U.S. operation in Venezuela in January and delayed publishing what they knew to avoid endangering U.S. troops, according to the OPM.
Charles Stadtlander, executive director of Media Relations and Communications for the Times, explained in an email that the newspaper had extensive coverage of operations against Venezuela and preparations for ground military operations.
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“Contrary to some claims, however, the Times did not have verified details about the imminent operation to capture Maduro nor a prepared article, nor did we hold the information at the request of the Trump administration,” he indicated.
A spokesperson for the Washington Post declined to comment, the Associated Press reported.
Identifying leaks that the government considers harmful to its message has been a top priority across several agencies since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. As part of this crackdown, the FBI seized the electronic devices of a Washington Post reporter in January, a move that alarmed media organizations and press freedom advocates.
Another incident occurred last year when dozens of reporters returned their access badges at the Pentagon, rejecting new rules imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that would leave journalists vulnerable to expulsion if they attempted to report information, classified or not, that had not been approved by Hegseth.
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The national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, Everett Kelley, denounced in a statement that the rule proposed by the OPM is part of an ongoing effort to silence federal workers.
