Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is famously loyal to his friends and associates, and expects the same in return.
Now he may be ready to teach a former campaign aide an expensive lesson in loyalty.
Trump is seeking $10 million in damages from former senior campaign consultant Sam Nunberg, alleging that Nunberg leaked confidential information to reporters in violation of a nondisclosure agreement.
Such a legal dispute is highly unusual for a presidential candidate. It reflects Trump’s efforts to aggressively protect the secrecy of his campaign’s inner workings, as he has for years fought to protect the secrecy of his businesses and family.
The Associated Press reported last month that Trump requires nearly everyone in his campaign and businesses to sign legally binding nondisclosure agreements prohibiting them from releasing any confidential or disparaging information about the real estate mogul, his family or his companies. Trump has also said he would consider requiring such agreements in the White House.
The lawsuit comes at a crucial political moment for Trump. He’s on the verge of picking his running mate and is preparing for next week’s Republican convention, one of his highest profile opportunities to reach voters and ease the concerns of GOP leaders who are concerned about his unconventional candidacy.
In court filings, Nunberg denied disparaging Trump and accused the presumptive GOP nominee of attempting to “bully” him into silence after Nunberg decided to publicly support Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential bid.
“Mr. Trump’s actions in starting a $10 million arbitration, seeking to silence Mr. Nunberg and have the proceedings sealed are a cautionary tale of what the American people face if Mr. Trump is elected president,” said Andrew Miltenberg, Nunberg’s attorney. Miltenberg said Trump’s attorney argued for the documents to be sealed in a hearing Wednesday morning.
Trump attorney Alan Garten repeatedly declined to refer to Nunberg by name, but described him as “a person who has a history of making untrue, outlandish and outrageous allegations.”
Nunberg was a consultant to Trump’s presidential campaign but was fired in August because of racist posts he wrote on Facebook.
Nunberg has been highly critical of Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, both professionally and personally. In a recent GQ Magazine interview, he said he would suck the “blood of out of (Lewandowski’s) skull by the time I’m done with him.”
In the court filings, Nunberg said Trump filed a $10 million arbitration claim against him and falsely accused him of being a source of a New York Post story from mid-May that recounted a public quarrel between Lewandowski and campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks. Lewandowski was fired from the campaign in June after months of tension with other senior Trump advisers.
Nunberg denied being the source of the article, but in court papers referred to the quarrel as being part of an “apparent affair.”
Garten told the AP that Nunberg’s allegations about Hicks and Lewandowski are “categorically untrue.” Reached by phone, Lewandowski said he was “not familiar with the court case” and would not comment on Nunberg’s allegations.
Hicks did not respond to detailed requests to respond to the allegations sent via email and text, as well as a voicemail.
Lewandowski helped Trump upset 16 primary rivals, a stunning feat for the political novice and a campaign manager with little presidential campaign experience. But Lewandowski clashed with other campaign staffers and was viewed by GOP leaders as unprepared to oversee a general election campaign.
Since Lewandowski’s firing, Trump’s campaign has shown flashes of operating more professionally, with the candidate giving more prepared speeches in addition to his freewheeling rallies.
Nunberg’s filed the court documents in an attempt to block private arbitration proceedings initiated by Trump in May.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
AWESOME NEWS, NOW HE WONT HAVE TO BEG FOR MONEY FROM HIS SUPPORTERS, THIS IS GREAT NEWS FOR ALL OF US DONNIE LOVERS ……..
Sam? C’mon Sam ur a nice guy leave it up to the judge.
Has he shown signs of BEGGING FOR MONEY”? Are you a Bernie lover? A Hillary Lover?
nope, voting for liar Donnie, he is my man !
Trump in 2016. That is the answer
Lawsuits are not concluded that fast, lol, it could take a couple years.
Trump MO / sue and file bankruptcy!!!!
Here we go folks!!’
Sheila, get your head out of the sand!!! He was wronged by that jerk!! I hope Trump bankrupts him, he deserves it!!
Hillaroid, leave you to die, lie, cheat, steal, and skrew the public for a nickel. I’ll take Trump everyday of the year!
Trump got to where he is not using professional political consultants. This scares the hell out of these focus group blood suckers. They decide something, like Hispanics are all for lawless uncontrolled immigration and it is gospel. Trump is the anti PC candidate, so why become PC? The press will still not like him because they are on the establishment’s gravy train too.
Greg, You are right. Let’s build the wall too. If the White house can have a higher fence we cahave a wall.
The Problem is they just dig under it. We need to help the Mexican people but not with help of the CORRUPT Mexican Government. They take money to fight the cartel from us and more money from the Cartel.
You are right.
Trump uses tactics the MSM and political guru’s never knew about. Most of them are like trained seals and have no real ideas of their own. Trump runs his campaign like Patton ran his army.
And we won the war with Pattons Army.
i hope Trump’s attempts to keep the details of this suit secret utterly collapse.
“The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.”
— Theodore Roosevelt (Republican) in the Kansas City Star, May 7, 1918
Trump should not fear the Truth; if he does, he demonstrates his unfitness for the Office.
“The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it…
…there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment…
…For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.
Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the Cold War, in short, with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match.”
~John F. Kennedy
But the guy he’s suing has threatened to “suck the blood out of his skull” referring to Lewandowski? Sounds particularly vicious, and an exemplar of his character that he probably wishes he hadn’t said, now..
What was meant by Trump about non-disclosures was for his family and friends and nothing to do with national items. Get real, that is Shillary’s game plan always. Trump has always been open about his businesses but always close to family and friends, and I admire him for that. For those who love to twist and malinterpret anything Trump says or does, suck it up! You are a big part of America’s problems and none of its resolutions and we all have to pay the price for your ignorance, stupidity and being brainwashed. Ta! Ta!
Well said. Trump has a right to privacy in his campaign. Once President, he has to be transparent concerning that job with exception of foreign affairs. There will be times we can’t be told ahead of time, somethings about to go down. All ppl should get that.
So we get transparency only after we elect him? Sounds like Pelosi’s “we have to pass it so we can see what’s in it”. Non-disclosure agreements are like every other agreement. The devil is in the details. I would like to read the Non-disclosure agreement that his staffers and others are being required to sign.
It was said in article that Trump may use such no disclosure agreements in DC?!?!?!?!
Really – sounds like Hilary to me!!!
Hillary does not need anyone to sign “non disclosure agreements”, she will just lie about everything and that will be the end of it.
Trump must have loyalty from his campaign staff. Surely you must appreciate if a staffer reveals everything to Trumps enemies, that would be not so good. right?
Did you ever ask someone to keep a secret or not to tell someone for some reason? You were not doing anything evil were you?
well said!!
Trump’s not looking for money….he has plenty of it! He’s looking for loyalty. Nunberg probably DID leak to the press et al. (When’s the last time Trump made an accusation that didn’t turn out to be true?) So, full disclosure is something we would all hope to be the “watchword” of an open, transparent presidency. Like Obama, right! Like Johnson, right? And, oh, like Carter, right! Nunberg SIGNED a pact — a LEGAL pact — with Donald Trump. He broke his word. Period. So, he now pays. End of controversy.
Silent Hammer — Absolutely correct!!!!! Go Trump 2016.
Got it. However, a non disclosure agreement is signed n order to keep confidential the things that need to be kept that way. When it is violated there are consequences that need to be faced. Many companies not just Trump’s have a similar agreement to protect the company n its executives from harm. There are somethings that just need to be kept confidential. The public do not need to know. Grant that to Mr. Trump and his companies and his executives
I guess that makes this agreement pretty much like the one the FBI agents were required to sign for the Clinton investigation.
Read my lips – there are nuclear WMD’s in Iraq – I never had sex with that woman – you can keep your doctor – it was because of a religious video – Every politician is a friggen liar! Trump is not perfect, but he is a good guy and America needs him!
Nope, he’s not even a ‘good’ guy. He is a lying blowhard egotist.
Tell it to Hiliary! There are over 30000 emails on a PRIVATE SERVER that were destroyed utterly and unretrievably on her instructions. Many are about State Dept business. She never had a .gov email account! She stretches the truth and lies repeatedly. She doesn’t just seal docs, she destroys them!
Trump wants to keep a particularly nasty personal vendetta against his ex campaign manager and spokesperson out of the gutter press. And you quote Kennedy and Roosevelt about it! Unreal.
William,
How do you know that “Many are about State Dept business.” if they were deleted? You are repeating a rumor with no way to prove ir disprove it. Hillary did what most before her did when she used a private e-mail server. It wasn’t illegal but has proven to be fodder for rumors.
Or steals them, like the papers from Fosters files that the FBI was looking for, That finally showed up a few years later in Clinton’s home with Hillery’s finger prints all over them..
We do hope that the standards advocated by Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, also apply to the Democratic contender for the job, Hillary Clinton. It seems to me that much has been done by the press, the FBI, etc., to suppress the truth from the public when it applies to Mrs. Clinton. No one should be above the law – NO ONE! I am for holding everyone to the highest standards possible – in particular those who are running for or hold the highest office in the land. If we are going to be transparent, let this transparency be across the board.
Thanks, Lee!
And i agree.
However, to expect The Liar to NOT lie is to expect her to grow taller when you say “Grow taller!”
There’s only 2 ways i know of to rid ourselves of this blight on humanity, the first being arrest and conviction – for which i still hold out hope, however dim – and losing the election, which is far more likely.
Saw a good one the other day: “Ok, will everyone voting for Hillary please raise your hand? Ok, now slap yourself with it, to cure you of the stupidity.”
The biggest rat of them all calling a little mouse a rat. Crooked Trump must show his taxes and then, if he becomes cleared, he would have the moral standing to call names to others.
YOU ARE A MEXICAN. PROBABLY ILLEGAL. GO BACK TO YOUR MEXICO HOME AND STAY THERE. WE WILL NOT MISS YOU. PROMISE.
Kathy, that is a bigoted, racist thing to say. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Kathy: you are Bigot deluxe !
KKK are you?
Manuel Rivera-Torres:
Trump and his companies are currently undergoing an audit. Once it’s done, he’s repeatedly promised to release those tax returns, EVEN THOUGH it is NOWHERE WRITTEN that a candidate must disclose their personal financial information.
There’s no “there” there; you’re tilting at windmills, or trying to sweep up all the sand on the beach.
Are you so lacking in information about Trump and others in the presidential race, or are you simply a propagandist?
I dealt with Donald Trump’s company when we had to back out of real estate deal for a client. There is only one word I can use to describe Donald Trump and that word is “HONEST.” That’s right. He makes a deal and sticks with it 100%. What else can you ask someone to do?
If former senior campaign consultant Sam Nunberg made a deal agreeing to a non-disclosure agreement, he should abide by it. As far as “bullying” people, our courts “bully” people all the time. Think about that.
But Donald Trump, the word for me is and continues to be: “HONEST.”
JUST LIKE YOU I WORKED WITH TRUMP IN BUSINESS. YES HE IS VERY HONEST.HURRAY 2016.
Trump should take a leaf at the new Philippine. President platform. Approach on graft and corruption.
Will Trump sue me if I don’t vote for him? I’d like to be his lawyer because that Esq is going to be very busy starting the second week in November.
bet he will sue congress if they don’t do things his way ……………..get’er done dude ……………
322,000,000 Plus Legal voters in America and I pray to God Clinton does not get Elected because We do not need a LIAR IN CHEIF for President of the USA. God Bless America.
I continue to pray for Donald Trump and I believe more strongly EVERY day that God has chosen him for SUCH A TIME AS THIS….We need a strong leader who cannot be bought, who has a big heart and his children respect him and he has the perfect elegant wife for a FIRST LADY. We all need to keep praying for a hedge of protection all around this beautiful family I cannot give money but such as I have I give freely…..Every day all day I pray for him and his family. Don’t give up. Get direction from God HIMSELF who knows all and SEES the big picture and the whole scenario is in HIS hands. I know God is going to give us another chance to be ONE NATION UNDER GOD and will use Mr. Trump and his family to lead us and model an honest life and family loyalty for all of us to see every day. God bless and keep us all doing the right thing and saying the right thing to make our country great once again.
Donald Trump deserves the right to protect his business, his family and friends. His business, family and friends deserve that loyalty also. Come on people protecting his business is also protecting his employees. Not enough of that these says. We all deserve that same loyalty from our employers. His business, family and friends deserve the protection that he gives them and he deserves the same from his employees, family and friends. We need him as president of this country. Donald Trump is merely living the morals we all should have and live by. Besides that his business, family and friends has nothing to do with how he runs this country as president. I admire such loyalty. Shows he has back bone and not adverse to standing up for what’s right. Donald J. Trump gets my vote for president. Anyone with any kind of intelligence would vote for him, if they want the best for our country.
The liberal snakes are everywhere!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our fearless so called leader keeps all of his info buried away from prying eyes,There is nothing wrong with Trump keeping his and especially his family away from prying eyes also
Trumpo style: Sue, sue, sue and don’t forget to file bankruptcy!! Nn
Here we go folks, it has started .
Stupid Liberal, Has no mind of her own so she spouts off the rhetoric of her party line.. Pick on the one thats tells the truth and is not a bought and paid politician following the NWO guide lines, He is not beholding to the Clinton’s or any other source, having spent his own money to run, Point to another candidate that used their own money to run… Have a nice life Troll
When you rat on a millionaire they sue you. But when you rat on the mafia they kill you.
Steve-
“There’s not a man on earth i can’t buy – or have killed.”
~Howard Hughes.
Millionaires kill people, too. So do billionaires. The Trillionaires make other people do it as “public policy.”
“Suck the blood out of his skull?” The guy sounds like a total lunatic!!!
Anyone who is not for Trump is part of the corruption we have experienced in the USA for the last 40 + years. Traditional constitutional Americans are in danger from so many different angles now , We must be smart , vigilant and learn who our enemies are and what their agendas are. See ” What you need to know about the Quran ” on YOU TUBE , Look up Taqiyya, Backa Bazhi, Taharrush just three of many horrlble practices of Muslim people , See whats going on in Europe the rapes of non Muslim women ,children and even adult men ! See “moscow Muslim Woman Beheads A Child ” on You Tube . See Europes swimming pools , the immigrants shitting in the streets , Guard your non Muslim children pedophilia is very common among Muslims . Muslims only live to further Sharia Law globally , they do not care if they die ,they become Martyrs when they die killing anyone who is not Muslim ! Teach and learn of the evil that exits on planet Earth.