Bloomberg’s NDA Problem? Elizabeth Warren Has a Plan for That.

(Mario Tama/Getty Images)

At Wednesday’s debate, Elizabeth Warren pressed Michael Bloomberg on his use of nondisclosure agreements in settling harassment lawsuits with former employees. She asked him to commit on the spot to release those employees from their NDAs “so we can hear their side of the story.”

Bloomberg sputtered something about not having very many NDAs (though he wouldn’t give a number or even a range) and that they were signed “consensually” so it wouldn’t be fair to the people who had settled with him to void the contract now. Amazingly, a lot of people online were agreeing with Bloomberg, using Twitter and comments sections to say that Elizabeth Warren clearly doesn’t understand how NDAs work.

You fools, this is Elizabeth Ann Warren. Of course she knows how NDAs work.

At a CNN town hall event in Nevada, Warren made it clear that she doesn’t just understand the issue at hand, but she–in typical Warren fashion–has a plan to fix it.

“I used to teach contract law and I thought I would make this easy,” she said to applause from the crowd. “I wrote up a release and covenant not to sue, and all that Mayor Bloomberg has to do is download it–I’ll text it–sign it, and then the women, or men, will be free to speak and tell their own stories.”

Warren read from her “simple and straightforward” document and also posted it online.

The document asks Bloomberg to “permit any person with knowledge of sexual harassment, discrimination, or other misconduct occurring at the Company or by Bloomberg to come forth and speak out, if that person so chooses, without fear of recourse by Bloomberg or the Company.”

“Under this release,” the document reads, “it is now the other person’s choice to disclose such information or not.” Easy peasy.

There’s less than a week until the next debate and I can’t wait to see Warren push Bloomberg to give an actual response to this proposal. Not that I expect him to ever sign something like this, but I really enjoy watching Warren make him squirm.

(via CNN on Twitter)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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