Bloomberg to release female staff from NDA agreements
>>WASHINGTON: Michael Bloomberg said on Friday that he is now willing to release women from three non-disclosure agreements related to offensive comments they say he made — after refusing to do so at Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate.
“Bloomberg LP has identified 3 NDAs signed over the past 30+ years with women to address complaints about comments they said I had made. If any of them want to be released from their NDAs, they should contact the company and they’ll be given a release,” Mr Bloomberg tweeted.
Mr Bloomberg campaign spokesman Tim O’Brien said the three NDAs were the only ones that “involved Mike Bloomberg directly” and that other NDAs would not be lifted because “other people were involved” in those cases.
One of the NDAs concerns a woman named Sekiko Sekai Garrison, who filed a complaint in 1995 alleging that Mr Bloomberg told her to “kill it” when she told him she was pregnant, the Associated Press reported and a senior campaign aide confirmed.
Elizabeth Warren and other rivals criticised him for his refusal to release former employees from non-disclosure agreements that would allow them to publicly discuss their allegations against him.
Sen Warren said on Friday that Mr Bloomberg’s announcement was insufficient and might not account all cases.
“That’s just not good enough. Michael Bloomberg needs to do a blanket release so that all women who have been muzzled by non-disclosure agreements can step up and tell their side of the story,” she told reporters.
“If there are only three then why didn’t he sign a blanket release? If he’s limiting the number, then you can’t know whether there are three, or 30, or 300. And that should not be in the control of Michael Bloomberg,” she added.
A Bloomberg campaign spokesman, Tim O’Brien, said on CNN that the three NDAs were the only ones that “involved Mike Bloomberg directly”.
Mr Bloomberg also said he has changed his company’s policy about non-disclosure agreements.