At my workplace, I’m supervisor for four staff members. If somebody from outside contacted my staff members and contracted them to do work for somebody else (even another friendly organization we coordinate with, not necessarily a competitor) without anybody telling me, I’d be crazy upset. Trying to put myself in those shoes, I could easily imagine it being grounds for immediate dismissal.
If the staffers involved are not fired immediately, it tells you everything about Republican promises to stand up to Trump.
In fact, they ought to be forced to testify before Congress, just to make a point about NDAs.
“All government employees work for Trump now, get over it!”
This happens in state government a great deal. The new governor or his staff think they are like CEO’s, able to reach down and use any employee on the payroll. They don’t understand how government works (separation of powers, etc) and often don’t want to learn.
They also don’t trust long time employees in the various departments because the ideologues can’t imagine the employees follow policy and the law, not politics.
“The staffers were also forced to sign nondisclosure agreements, according to Politico.”
Excuse me, but don’t the taxpayers pay for these people’s salaries? What is this nondisclosure shit?
I assume the ACLU will be looking into this…
Also, wasn’t there something a short time back about the ability to drop individual government employees’ salaries to $1 – perhaps here is a group that deserves it?
If this doesn’t warrant an immediate Congressional investigation (never mind the ACLU, as much as I admire them), nothing does.
Time for a FOI request about those NDA’s. They work for us.
So much is so wrong about this story I would insist on verification. A stray story in Politico isn’t enough… This story needs some serious coverage.
Yes, I agree wholeheartedly — can we trust this Congress to do that??
On the other hand, it might just piss them off enough to get the ball rolling. Especially if they believe it might just be the tip of the iceberg and, more importantly, undermining their own authority.
I guess we’ll get the next read on this within the next day or two.
I don’t even know how these NDA’s will be enforceable. I don’t think the administration understands FOIA, open government. Every day is a new outrage.
Of course they are not enforceable; nevertheless, it would be salutary to make a public demonstration of this fact, one way or another.
But her emails!
“The staffers were also forced to sign nondisclosure agreements …”
How? They don’t work for the White House?
When Obama wasn’t holding tea parties and socials for the GOP, he was accused of creating the blockages and obstructionism in DC. Now Trump is outright insulting the Democrats and backdooring Republicans and he isn’t catching spit for it!
I think it would help if other congresspeople referred to the bosses of the poached staffers as “cucks”. Yes, I think that would help a lot.
I would amend this slightly – new Governors TRY this all the time, but they don’t succeed. Trump suceeded.
Even if they work for the white house, they can’t sign NDA’s.
The staffers were also forced to sign nondisclosure agreements, according to Politico.
WTF? Not that I expected PeePee and his people to follow the law, but weren’t they officially notified that NDAs rarely conform with actual laws that deal directly with government employee accountability, documentation, etc.? I sure do hope the proper watchdog groups are taking detailed notes and planning appropriate court action.
It’s one thing to ask someone else’s staff to work with you. It’s another thing entirely to make them sign an NDA swearing not to tell you that they worked for that other entity and to leave you, their immediate supervisor, left to twist in the wind when you find out what that staff did at the same time as the rest of the world.
If congress allows this simple yet telling breach of the separation of powers to stand without repercussions, or consequences, that emboldens President Bannon and his pet PeePee. The next breach won’t be nearly as simple.
I guess it may depend on the new Justice Dept. Is that right?
This is going to be interesting, so long as the story has “legs.” If nothing else, Goodlatte and the rest of the GOP toadies should be embarrassed by this revelation. Given their previous surrender to the Trumppolini regime, I am not optimistic. The slow-motion coup d’état continues.