The White House has threatened legal action against the staff members who leaked the information, in an effort to curb information leaks to journalists.
Published May 26, 2026
President Donald Trump’s administration has proposed guidelines for federal employees that would require employees to sign non-disclosure agreements to prevent them from speaking to journalists without prior permission.
A new proposal released Tuesday by the Office of Personnel Management says the White House could take legal action against workers who violate the rules.
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The U.S. government also claims it is entitled to “royalties” from disclosing the information, although it is unclear what that means. OPM did not immediately provide further explanation.
The document does not specify when the NDA will take effect. Once the rule is officially published in the Federal Register, there will be a 30-day public comment period. Individual institutions will need to agree to implement this directive.
“This move is rooted in concerns that unauthorized disclosures of sensitive government information are disrupting agency operations and undermining trust across government,” OPM spokeswoman McLaurin Pinover said.
The directive is President Trump’s latest move to further control the flow of information to the public, ranging from banning news outlets from Pentagon press rooms to cutting funding for public media outlets like PBS and NPR.
It is already illegal to release confidential government information. Trump faced criminal charges in 2023 for allegedly mishandling classified government documents.
However, this proposal would expand the definition of classified beyond the intelligence agency category.
NDAs cover “information regarding an agency’s internal operations, personnel matters, procurement processes, or sensitive, pre-decision or pending material that is not currently public and should not be disclosed under applicable law.”
The agreement also covers former employees who sign it, and requires them to obtain written permission before speaking to reporters about such information.
Federal law prohibits government retaliation against federal employees who disclose fraud, abuse, or illegal conduct in the workplace to internal government oversight agencies or Congress. According to the draft agreement, the NDA does not apply to these disclosures.
Since his second term as president, Trump has waged an aggressive campaign against news organizations and media figures he deems too critical of him. He has filed lawsuits against news organizations, dismissed reports as “fake news” and attacked journalists personally.
“The proposal by the ‘most transparent administration in history’ for millions of federal employees to sign a blanket NDA is not only absurd, it is unnecessary and dangerously secretive,” Lauren Harper of the Free Press Foundation (FPF) said in a statement to Al Jazeera.
“This policy by the President, who has previously attempted to impose oppressive corporate-style confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements on federal employees, would undermine whistleblower protections, undermine the First Amendment, and unfairly impede the public’s right to know.”
Trump pursued his critics.
In April, President Trump threatened to revoke ABC’s license after late-night host Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about first lady Melania Trump.
The White House also banned the Associated Press from the White House press corps and restricted reporters’ access to the Pentagon, home to the U.S. military, a rule a federal court ruled unconstitutional.
Last year, the Trump administration began a crackdown on deporting pro-Palestinian student activists who live in the United States but are not U.S. citizens.
