Donald Trump’s position on leaks is complicated. As a candidate, he encouraged WikiLeaks to release Hillary Clinton's private emails. But as president he's railed against disclosures from inside the White House. WNYC has learned that Trump’s family business — now run by his two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric — is also trying to plug a leak at one of its hotels, the Trump SoHo, in downtown Manhattan.
Last month, word got out that the hotel was struggling. The conference business is down sharply from a year ago and management has plans to lay off 12 housekeepers.
Not long after WNYC reported those facts, employees at the hotel were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement.
A partial copy of the agreement, obtained by WNYC, defines confidential information as facts concerning the private lives of the Trump family, the Trumps’ political activities, and the Trump family business.
“You shall not give or participate in any interviews, write or be a source for any articles, books, programs, or stories in any form...concerning or relating to any Confidential Information,” the agreement states.
Owen Laird, an employment attorney at the Harman Firm, reviewed the agreement for WNYC. He said it’s far from boilerplate. Several passages concerning copyright reveal priorities that are very different from those of a typical hotel business:
These provisions suggest that under the agreement, a photo taken by a hotel worker of Donald Trump Jr., or Eric Trump, would automatically become the copyrighted property of the Trumps, Laird said, “which is not really a typical provision to have. Most confidentiality agreements involve businesses concerned about their proprietary information.... Here, it’s really about the Trump family rather than the employer.”
It’s not clear how many workers at Trump SoHo have been asked to sign the agreement or how many have signed. Many of the workers are represented by the Hotel Trades Council. The union says there is no confidentiality clause in the collective bargaining agreement.
If plugging leaks is the goal, it’s not working. A fact sheet posted for staff on Tuesday, and shared with WNYC, shows hotel occupancy at 75 percent and 18 days accident-free.
The Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment.