The Trump presidential campaign is preparing to sue author Cliff Sims for breaking a non-disclosure agreement about his time working in the White House.
Breaking the agreement
Cliff Sims is the author of the new White House memoir, “Team of Vipers.” In the book, Sims portrays the White House’s operations as chaotic, while also painting unflattering portraits of many staffers.
During his stint in the Trump Administration, Sims served as the director of White House message strategy. He left his position last May.
One of Sims’s prime targets in the book is Trump aide Kellyanne Conway. Sims outed her as a leaker in his book, detailing how she secretly sent the media disparaging remarks about her coworkers. (RELATED: Former Trump Staff Member Says ‘Cartoon Villain’ Kellyanne Conway Bad-Mouthed Colleagues.)
President Trump is apparently not pleased with Sims’s disclosures, and he let off some steam about it on Twitter:
A low level staffer that I hardly knew named Cliff Sims wrote yet another boring book based on made up stories and fiction. He pretended to be an insider when in fact he was nothing more than a gofer. He signed a non-disclosure agreement. He is a mess!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2019
Mess may be right. It looks like the Trump campaign got the boss’s message, and will file suit accordingly. Michael Glassner, the chief operating officer of Donald J. Trump for President Inc., made the announcement over Twitter.
The Trump campaign is preparing to file suit against Cliff Sims for violating our NDA. https://t.co/Xl1N95fPkH
— Michael Glassner (@michaelglassner) January 29, 2019
Stopping the embarrassing leaks
Sims’s memoir represents an ongoing problem in the Administration. Too many staffers are either leaking to the press, or are blatantly violating NDAs once they’re out of the White House.
The Trump campaign wants to nip this problem in the bud before the 2020 presidential race really gets underway. Let’s hope Sims got a big advance on his book. He’ll need it to pay plenty of legal fees.