In a major victory for our client and Lead Plaintiff Jessica Denson, on June 7, 2023, the Court preliminarily approved a class action settlement Ms. Denson and the 2016 Trump presidential campaign filed, which would finally and forever free all campaign workers formerly bound to silence. Under the settlement agreement, the Trump campaign admits that the non-disclosure and non-disparagement provisions of a form contract (“NDA”) signed by all of the 2016 campaign workers are invalid and unenforceable, conceding that Ms. Denson’s precedent-setting victory over the NDA in March 2021 should apply to all signers. Ms. Denson first sued to invalidate the NDA in 2018 as a pro se litigant.
Critically, the settlement goes beyond the Campaign’s recent concessions in this case, ensuring that permanent class-wide invalidation of the NDA has the force of law. The terms of the proposed settlement will become effective once approved by the court.
“Trump’s illegal campaign NDAs are the centerpiece of his up-is-down authoritarian dreamworld, where silencers are hailed as champions of free speech, those who weaponize the justice system claim to be its victims, and the followers of would-be dictators shout, ‘Freedom!’ said Jessica Denson. “We held this lawlessness to account when I prevailed over my NDA, and have now reached a groundbreaking concession from the most dangerous campaign in American history to end this censorship for once and for all. Accountability is achievable, and Donald J. Trump is not above the law.¨
To ensure that the illegal provisions will never be enforced, the parties have asked the Court to enter an order permanently enjoining any and all enforcement against all former campaign workers. Pending approval of the Court, all former staffers, independent contractors and volunteers will now be free to speak their minds regarding the campaign, without fear of enforcement of the NDA by anyone, including Donald Trump. The settlement agreement would resolve a class-action lawsuit brought by Jessica Denson, a former Trump campaign staffer, represented by Protect Democracy, Bowles & Johnson PLLC, and Ballard Spahr LLP. The agreement can be found here.
John Langford, counsel for Protect Democracy, praised the proposed settlement for assuring protection for all those who signed the Trump campaign’s form NDA as well as for preventing the use of such overly broad speech restrictions in future political campaigns. “Today’s proposed settlement would be a victory for Jessica, everyone who signed this NDA, and our democracy. It is a natural extension of some of the most important First Amendment cases, making clear that abusing contract law to silence critics is just as problematic as abusing defamation law. Jessica’s case is already a vital, enduring precedent that unlimited NDAs concerning candidates and public officials are anathema to our profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open.”
“Today marks a total surrender by the Trump campaign on a point that was always obvious: this NDA was unenforceable under the law, and the campaign workers should never have had to live under its shadow,” said David Bowles of Bowles & Johnson PLLC. “Jessica has spent years of her life achieving this goal, and finally the public will see the benefits of her hard work.”
“Today’s proposed settlement agreement would be the death knell for a contract that never should have been drafted. In some ways, this was a technical dispute, turning on black-letter contract and employment law, and we won that dispute handedly. But stepping back, this case is about more than that. We cannot permit a politician with authoritarian leanings to silence his critics by weaponizing contracts,” said Joe Slaughter, an attorney at Ballard Spahr LLP.
Protect Democracy, Bowles & Johnson PLLC, and Ballard Spahr LLP filed the lawsuit on behalf of Jessica Denson and other former 2016 Trump campaign workers to put a stop to the campaign’s ongoing efforts to silence its former workers, and to make clear that public officials and candidates for office cannot use campaign NDAs to forever strip workers of their right to participate in public debate.
“The 2016 Trump campaign demanded that employees and volunteers sign shockingly broad non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements. The non-disparagement clause, for example, purports to bind such persons for life to speak no ill of former President Trump, his family members, or his businesses on pain of significant financial penalty. Such restrictions strike at the very heart of free speech and democratic government.”
– Heidi Kitrosser, Robins Kaplan Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School
