(CNN) A few weeks after he was elected president of the United States, Donald Trump had an idea. In between meetings with future Cabinet secretaries and well-wishers in his office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower in New York, the President-elect decided he would require his White House staff to sign non-disclosure agreements -- just like he had done for years with employees at the Trump Organization.

Trump was immediately advised that the idea wasn't feasible for federal government employees and couldn't be enforced, a source familiar with how things unfolded told CNN. However, as leaks spilled out of the West Wing in the early days of the administration, Trump continued to push the idea. But he wasn't alone. Both Ivanka Trump, who became a federal employee in late March, and Jason Greenblatt, the former lawyer for the Trump Organization, supported having employees sign nondisclosure agreements, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

Finally, by spring, White House counsel Don McGahn relented. He drafted what has been described to CNN as a watered-down, unenforceable version of a nondisclosure agreement.

The general premise of this agreement, CNN is told, is that employees should use their best efforts to not profit off confidential West Wing information, such as writing a tell-all book once they left the White House.

The Washington Post first published a report about nondisclosure agreements with financial penalties on Sunday, which White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said it was "completely false."

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