“I’m not going to get into the back and forth on who has signed an NDA here at the White House,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo Sanders won't say whether she signed White House confidentiality agreement

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday refused to say whether she signed a non-disclosure agreement when joining the White House, and claimed that the confidentiality agreements are “common” even for government officials.

Asked in the White House press briefing whether she had signed an NDA, she punted.


“I’m not going to get into the back and forth on who has signed an NDA here at the White House,” she said. “I can tell you that it’s common for a lot of places including in government, particularly anyone with a security clearance.”

Obtaining a security clearance typically makes it illegal for a cleared person to disclose classified information, but those rules do not usually constitute an NDA.

Pushed on why Trump administration officials would be barred from speaking negatively about the president or his family, a practice more commonly found in corporate environments, but that have been used by the White House and Trump campaign, Sanders defended the administration’s use of the agreements.

“Despite contrary opinion,” she argued, “it's actually very normal and every administration prior to the Trump administration has had NDAs,” again claiming that they are frequently used for those with a security clearance.

The Trump campaign on Tuesday filed for arbitration against former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, who just released a tell-all book about her time working under Trump and has been releasing secretly recorded conversations with President Donald Trump and chief of staff John Kelly.

Manigault Newman has said that she never signed the White House’s non-disclosure agreement, but she did acknowledge that she signed one during Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 and when she appeared on "The Apprentice" in 2003.

A copy of the Trump campaign NDA obtained by POLITICO included a non-disparagement clause to ensure staffers did not release confidential or damaging information about Trump, his businesses or his family.

Sanders referred more questions about the necessity of the NDA likely signed by Manigault Newman to the campaign. “It's certainly not a question I can answer as someone that’s in an official government capacity,” she said.

