Former White House aide Cliff Sims sues Trump

Former White House communications aide and "Team of Vipers" author Cliff Sims is suing President Trump and the federal government, claiming the president and his administration are "intentionally" and "unconstitutionally" trying to silence him. 

The lawsuit comes after the Trump campaign has filed an arbitration claim against Sims for alleged breaches of a non-disclosure agreement the campaign says Sims signed. Sims, who served as a Trump campaign staffer then as an adviser to Mr. Trump for 15 months in the White House, is asking the courts to not enforce any non-disclosure agreements and stop the president and his associates from further attempting to penalize him. 

"The defendants seek to unlawfully penalize and impose a prior restraint upon Mr. Sims with respect to the publication and discussion of his book, "Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House ... and any information he has learned as a result of serving as a federal employee," the complaint reads. "The U.S. government is intentionally and unconstitutionally engaging in a subterfuge effort to use a private entity, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., to do its bidding to silence Mr. Sims when it is really the intense powers of the presidency coming down upon a sole individual."

When Sims' book was released, Trump called Sims a "low-level staffer" and a "mess," after which Sims tweeted out pictures of himself and the president in the White House. 

The president has been known to use non-disclosure agreements in the past. An arbitration complaint was also filed against former "Apprentice" star and White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman when she published her tell-all book on her time in the Trump White House. 

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• Donald Trump
• White House