Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is scrambling to contain the fallout of his campaign turmoil by issuing non-disclosure agreements (NDA) to staff, according to a Thursday report.
Amid mounting scrutiny over his past Reddit posts, Platner’s former political director, Genevieve McDonald — who resigned in October — claimed that his campaign began distributing NDAs to staffers around the same time, according to a Politico report.
Platner offered one staffer $15k to sign an NDA…hint hint more coming
Wait til his buddies in the Corps discuss his Nazi tatPlatner reshuffles campaign and sends out NDAs as he struggles to get ahead of controversies https://t.co/0TjQ2VOj6e via @politico @adamwren
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) October 24, 2025
McDonald told the outlet she refused to sign an NDA before resigning, saying, “The campaign offered me $15,000 to sign a NDA. I did not accept the offer. I certainly could have used the money. I quit my job to work on Platner’s campaign, believing it was something different than it is.” (RELATED: Maine Oyster Farmer’s Dad Somehow Found $60,000 To Drop On Democrats Despite ‘Working Class’ Background)
The nondisclosure agreement reportedly began circulating among the Senate hopeful’s staff soon after Platner faced backlash over his resurfaced Reddit posts.
In a statement to Politico, the Platner campaign said the $15,000 offer to McDonald was standard severance.
A campaign spokesperson explained to the outlet that the team recently hired Spruce Street “to take over campaign compliance to institute standard practices that had yet to be put into place. Some of those standards had to be instituted retroactively but as a matter of course we do not require anyone previously involved in the campaign to do so. Genevieve McDonald was offered severance which is standard for all campaign employees and contractors.”
Spruce Street Consulting has ties to progressive candidates such as Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, Politico reported.
The paperwork was sent electronically Sunday by campaign contractor Victoria Perrone to McDonald, who had resigned days earlier, the outlet reported. It was voided by the campaign at 7:04 p.m. Wednesday, multiple days after her departure and just hours after Politico reached out for comment about the campaign’s use of NDAs, according to the report. (RELATED: Maine Mamdani: So-Called ‘Grassroots’ Oyster Farmer Has Deep Connections To Far-Left)
The document was sent by Perrone, a political compliance specialist and the president and founder of Spruce Street Consulting. Perrone confirmed by phone that Platner was a client but declined to comment further to Politico.
McDonald said she understood the $15,000 payment offer to be contingent upon signing the NDA, sharing a screenshot of a text message from Perrone to the outlet.
We need to give young people something to believe in. pic.twitter.com/hsaNPWTBht
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) October 24, 2025
“If you can get it back to me before the end of the day, I can get your payments out the door,” the message read, according to the report.
Alongside reportedly distributing NDAs, Platner tapped his friend Kevin Brown — a veteran of former President Barack Obama and Democrat Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaigns — to serve as campaign manager. He also added an in-house attorney as part of an effort to steady his embattled campaign, Politico reported.
Brown, the new campaign manager, declined to comment on the record to Politico. Platner’s campaign has not yet responded to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.
“Platner’s uncovered Reddit posts do even more to deny him credibility with real working-class folks.”@ambermarieduke exposes the truth behind the Democrats’ so-called “authentic” candidate in the latest Unfit to Print. Sign up below ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/V679ToAlrE
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 23, 2025
His once-promising campaign has been overshadowed in recent days by a wave of negative reports about his past, surfacing soon after Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills — the establishment Democrats’ preferred contender to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins — joined the primary race. (RELATED: Lefties Suddenly Change Tune On ‘Locker Room Talk’ After Their Graham Platner’s Reddit Posts Leaked)
Platner expressed remorse for an alleged Nazi symbol tattoo, as well as for other resurfaced Reddit posts — including a deleted 2018 post implying that violence is sometimes needed to bring about social change. CNN originally reported that another deleted Reddit post called police “all bastards.”
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