Trump's latest legal loss may open the door for more broken NDAs and exposed secrets
29 September 2021
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Former President Donald Trump may have opened another can of worms with his latest failed attempt to enforce a former White House staffer's nondisclosure agreement (NDA).
Now, Omarosa Manigault Newman's attorney John Phillips is encouraging others to follow suit as his client's case should serve as an example of how an NDA can be broken. Speaking to Law & Crime, he shed light on what his client's victory could mean for others like her.
"People who signed these NDAs should sleep better and speak more freely," Phillips told the publication.
Last week, Trump lost a three-year legal battle he'd been fighting against former top White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman. Shortly after her departure from the White House, Manigault-Newman released a book titled, "Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House." According to Business Insider, the book offered a critical account of Manigault-Newman's time working for the Trump administration from 2017 to 2018.
Although she did break her disclosure agreement with the release of the book, Manigault-Newman still managed to prevail in court. According to Law & Crime, on Friday, September 24, assigned Arbitrator T. Andrew Brown released a ruling on the case. Upon consideration of the parties' submissions, the Arbitrator hereby grants Respondent's Summary Judgment Motion declaring the Agreement invalid under New York contract law," Brown wrote.
Brown also criticized the obligation that came with Trump's NDA describing it as "certainly unreasonable."
"The agreement definitely imposes on [the] respondent an obligation to never say anything remotely critical of Mr. Trump Trump, or his or his family members' interests, for the rest of her life. Such a burden is certainly unreasonable," Brown wrote in the judgment.
The publication also noted that the arbitrator emphasized "fatally for Trump, that while courts can fill in the gaps in certain instances, contract terms must be clear and definite in order for mutual assent (i.e. the creation of a contract) regarding those would-be terms. And here that simply was not the case."
Despite the intimidating tone of Trump's NDA, Manigault-Newman prevailed and Phillips is glad she had the courage to come forward. He said, "Kudos to Omarosa Manigault Newman for coming forward and taking this on."