Bill Pruitt, a television producer and director who worked on Trump's former reality show The Apprentice added fuel to the fire on Saturday, with the following tweet:
Aaron Holman, the campaign's creator, launched the initiative with a goal of $5 million because that's reportedly how much the Trump organizations will sue parties who break non-disclosure agreements (though that may be a low estimate; last July the Trump campaign sought $10 million in damages from former senior campaign consultant Sam Nunberg, alleging that Nunberg violated his NDA).
But Holman, a 34-year-old consultant based in Boston, wants not only to raise monies as a "legal defense fund," but also to let anyone who is holding evidence but scared to come out against Trump know that they are respected and that there are folks out there who want them to feel safe.
"A group of friends and I came up with this because we want to prove to people that there are thousands of us who want this information out, and that to say very purposefully, we support you, and we want to do what we can to help bring this information into the light," he told NBC News.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Trump Sunlight has raised over $26,000 from nearly 900 people. Ideally, the financial goal will be raised and whoever has "concrete audio evidence" of Trump saying derogatory things will come forward with the material, said Holman.
But no matter the outcome, Holman is optimistic that the campaign will help bring the importance of transparency to light. Holman is also hopeful that the government will introduce policies similar to those implemented on Wall Street, where if someone is privy to information that they feel goes against the public interest, they will be encouraged and supported to speak out.
"If some [program] were to come out that is directionally similar to those [enforced for big banks], that would drastically change the course of the country," said Holman. "It's not okay that someone with such information can't feel safe coming forward; that an NDA [precludes] that right."
Fear of major financial loss is a pretty valid reason to not break an NDA, but Meg Mott, professor of politics at Marlboro College in Vermont, asserts that breaking NDAs could have other, potentially more devastating impacts on a person's life.
