Trump campaign ordered to fork over $350,000 for trying to enforce 'unenforceable' NDA


The campaign organization for former President Donald Trump was recently ordered to hand over more than $350,000 in legal fees and expenses after attempting to enforce an "unenforceable" nondisclosure agreement against an ex-staffer, BuzzFeed News reports Friday.
An arbitrator in the nonpublic arbitration case found that though Alva Johnson's — the ex-staffer — attempt to sue Trump failed, his campaign was unable to "invoke a legally unsound nondisclosure agreement," BuzzFeed News writes. Johnson had alleged the former president once tried to forcibly kiss her, and also made claims of pay discrimination.
The March 10 order requiring the Trump campaign to pay Johnson was made public this week.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The former president has often used arbitration to try and keep unseemly claims out of the limelight, rather than allow an issue to go to court and risk public hearings and documents, BuzzFeed News explains. During his campaign in 2016, many staffers were directed to sign NDAs "that broadly barred them from sharing information about the campaign or saying negative things about Trump, his family, and his businesses."
But in two previous cases involving ex-staffers and the NDAs, "a judge and an arbitrator concluded that key sections of that agreement were too vague and ill-defined to be constitutionally enforceable," per BuzzFeed News. In Johnson's case, the arbitrator found the previous rulings to be persuasive enough and dismissed the campaign's complaint against her.
Her lawyers then requested that, as the winning party, the Trump campaign pay their legal bills. The arbitrator, Victori Bianchini, agreed and ordered Team Trump to pay $303,285, as well as the costs of the arbitration itself, which amounted to about $50,000. Read more at BuzzFeed News.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.
-
Fed cuts interest rates a quarter point
Speed Read ‘The cut suggests a broader shift toward concern about cracks forming in the job market’
-
ABC shelves ‘Kimmel Live’ after Trump FCC threat
Speed Read ‘A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the president doesn’t like what they say’
-
September 18 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Thursday's political cartoons include a man who would be king, an inconsistent court, and social media in the trash
-
ABC shelves ‘Kimmel Live’ after Trump FCC threat
Speed Read ‘A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the president doesn’t like what they say’
-
What is Donald Trump’s visit worth to the UK economy?
In the Spotlight Centrepiece of the president’s trip, business-wise, is a ‘technology partnership’
-
Trump’s visit: the mouse and the walrus
Talking Point Britain is keen to point to its own ‘tangible results’, but the US administration has made their demands clear
-
Supreme Court: Will it allow Trump’s tariffs?
Feature Justices fast-track Trump’s appeal to see if his sweeping tariffs are unconstitutional
-
Venezuela: Was Trump’s air strike legal?
Feature A Trump-ordered airstrike targeted a speedboat off the coast of Venezuela, killing all 11 passengers on board
-
3 killed in Trump’s second Venezuelan boat strike
Speed Read Legal experts said Trump had no authority to order extrajudicial executions of noncombatants
-
Is Kash Patel’s fate sealed after Kirk shooting missteps?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION The FBI’s bungled response in the immediate aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting has director Kash Patel in the hot seat
-
Russian drone tests Romania as Trump spins
Speed Read Trump is ‘resisting congressional plans to impose newer and tougher penalties on Russia’s energy sector’