The Trump administration is moving to force every federal employee in the country to sign a nondisclosure agreement — a sweeping crackdown on leaks that critics say could silence government workers for good. But for Donald Trump, silencing people with NDAs is nothing new.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management posted a draft notice Tuesday that would bar federal workers from sharing a wide array of "non-public, confidential, or proprietary information" or "any sensitive, pre-decisional or deliberative material" not already available to the public. The rule goes well beyond typical classified and unclassified designations.

The notice will be published on Wednesday and remain open for a 30-day public comment period.

OPM cited several high-profile leaks to justify the move, including what it called "unauthorized disclosures" made to the New York Times and The Washington Post about a U.S. raid in January that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The administration claimed the leaks "put the lives of members of the armed forces at risk, leading news organizations to delay 'publishing what they knew to avoid endangering U.S. troops.'"...