The U.S. government can't sue someone just for making Melania Trump look bad
Source: Washington Post
The U.S. government can’t sue someone just for making Melania Trump look bad
Using the Justice Department as the Trump family’s personal law firm is unconstitutional.
By Mark S. Zaid
Mark S. Zaid is a Washington lawyer who specializes in national security matters.
10/15/2020, 2:35:30 p.m.
The U.S. government, on behalf of every citizen of the nation, has filed an unprecedented lawsuit against a former friend of first lady Melania Trump for publishing a scathing tell-all book last month. This is just the latest move by the Trump family to try to turn the Justice Department into its own private law firm to silence those who speak critically of the Trumps. Not only does this effort violate the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but it further slides our country from the democracy it was created to be back toward the monarchy we escaped. The government can pursue people for disclosing classified information, but it can’t stop them from publishing books just because they might make the president’s family look bad.
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff served as an adviser to the first lady from January to August 2017, during which time she entered into what is called a “Gratuitous Services Agreement,” which was approved by a government contracting officer. Under the agreement, Wolkoff agreed to serve in a “volunteer role as a trusted adviser” and “promised to maintain strict confidentiality over ‘nonpublic, privileged and/or confidential information’ that she might obtain during her service.”
That deal contained “no termination date,” according to the complaint the government filed, which states clearly that Wolkoff had “access to significant confidential information related to the first lady’s official duties as well as to more private aspects of her role in the first family.” She also had “indirect access to deliberative information, to which the first lady was privy, related to the president’s official duties on behalf of the country.”
Translation: She had access to information revealing what our government was up to. That belongs to the American people, not to Melania Trump.
Agreements like this for volunteers are not new to the U.S. government; they arise from the adoption of the Antideficiency Act more than a century ago. The documents are simply meant to establish that no money, favors or other compensation will be given or received by the parties involved — with the broad purpose being to keep the government from incurring financial obligations over and above those authorized by Congress.
In essence, GSAs are meant to serve as a shield for the government because they eliminate any risk or obligation for financial liability and provide insulation from lawsuits. But this lawsuit demonstrates that the Trump administration is perverting them to function as a sword to silence or punish potential threats.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/15/melania-trump-book-lawsuit/
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