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Gorka: I signed NDAs in the White House, during Trump campaign

Former White House adviser Sebastian Gorka on Thursday claimed he signed nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) during his tenure on the Trump campaign and in the administration. 

However, Gorka was appearing to conflate the traditional NDA with a form needed to have a security clearance within the White House, which is unrelated and allows government employees to access classified information.

“I signed an NDA when I started advising candidate Trump in 2015 because I started working for him on national security issues when he was in the running,” Gorka told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Ned Ryun on “Rising.”

“So I signed an NDA then, and yes, I signed an NDA when I joined the White House and when I left the White House because I had a clearance,” he continued. 

“What I signed is a function … it’s the ‘out brief.’ When you leave a job where you are required to access classified information, once you are read out of certain programs, once you go back into the private sector, you have to sign a document that states, ‘I will not discuss anything I’ve seen, which is classified,’ ” he said. 

The issue of nondisclosure agreements has taken center stage this week after former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman made a series of claims about President Trump in her new book, “Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House.” 
 
Manigault Newman said she signed a confidentiality agreement with the Trump campaign, but denied signing a similar agreement when she left the administration. 
 
The agreement Gorka referenced is separate from the form Manigault Newman was likely referring to. 
 
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Tuesday it was common for government employees, particularly those with security clearances, to sign nondisclosure agreements. 
 
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on Sunday that West Wing employees have signed nondisclosure agreements and argued that they were needed to ensure privacy. 
 
However, deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told Hill.TV on Wednesday that he has never seen such an agreement in the White House, and was never asked to sign one. 
 

— Julia Manchester

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