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Former White House staffer Cliff Sims sues Trump

Former White House communications aide Cliff Sims on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Cliff Sims with Stephen Colbert. Photo: Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images

Former White House communications aide Cliff Sims, who released the White House insider memoir "Team of Vipers" last month, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against President Trump, accusing him of directly using his campaign to violate his ex-employees' free-speech and free-press rights by improperly seeking retribution, the New York Times first reported.

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A source with direct knowledge confirmed to Axios that the NYT account is accurate.

The details: The Trump campaign had reportedly filed an arbitration claim against Simms last week, claiming that he breached a 2016 nondisclosure agreement with the publication of his book.

  • The challenge "seeks to permanently enjoin the [Trump] from silencing Mr. Sims with respect to any information he learned during his tenure as a federal employee, and any legal rights and protections therefrom that may necessarily flow."
  • It also said that Trump has been intentional with how he enforces nondisclosure agreements, saying he did not target former aides Sean Spicer, Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, but had filed an arbitration action against Omarosa Manigault Newman over her 2018 book, “Unhinged.”
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