Cummings threatens salaries of Trump officials who enforce nondisclosure agreements

House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) on Tuesday threatened to withhold the salaries of White House officials who enforce nondisclosure agreements that lack protections for federal whistleblowers.

The move is the latest effort by Cummings to demand documents from a defiant Trump administration by invoking the congressional power of the purse and threatening officials’ pay.

Cummings sent a letter to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney renewing a request for documents regarding nondisclosure agreements for White House staff to determine whether they include language verifying protections for whistleblowers providing information to Congress about potential wrongdoing.{mosads}

“Gag orders without this required language could chill employees from reporting violations of law, waste, fraud, and abuse. As a result, the salaries of officials who enforce such illegal nondisclosure agreements may be withheld, according to federal law,” Cummings wrote.

Cummings previously asked the White House for documents about the nondisclosure agreements in March 2018 following a Washington Post report that senior White House staff members were asked to sign agreements not to disclose confidential information.

But at that time, Democrats were in the minority and Cummings didn’t have the power to threaten salaries if the White House didn’t comply. The Trump administration did not produce documents in response to Cummings.

In his Tuesday letter to Mulvaney, Cummings asked for copies of all nondisclosure or confidentiality agreements signed by any Executive Office of the President employees, interns, fellows or advisers, as well as any other documents and communications relating to workers who raised concerns about the terms, by May 28.

Last week, Cummings threatened the salaries of Interior, Commerce and Justice department officials if they block ongoing committee investigations.

“Please be advised that any official at the Department who ‘prohibits or prevents’ or ‘attempts or threatens to prohibit or prevent’ any officer or employee of the Federal Government from speaking with the Committee could have his or her salary withheld pursuant to section 713 of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act,” Cummings wrote in letters to each of the departments.

Democrats have been searching for ways to make Trump officials pay — figuratively and literally — for stonewalling their investigations.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) also said last week that lawmakers are considering imposing fines, up to $25,000 per day, on Trump officials who don’t comply with subpoenas.

“I think it’s much more practical to consider levying individual fines on the person, not the office, until they comply,” Schiff said at an event hosted by Axios. “You could fine someone $25,000 a day until they comply and that would probably get their attention.”