President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is skipping the protocol of using the FBI to conduct background checks, according to a report.
Instead, the president-elect’s team is turning to private companies to vet administrative appointees, people familiar with transition planning told CNN. Trump has criticized the FBI for its slow investigation process and feared it would delay his ability to roll out his agenda.
A security clearance is needed for some Cabinet positions, such as attorney general, and the process of obtaining one includes an FBI background check.
Dan Meyer, a national security attorney, told CNN Trump’s mistrust of the FBI and the deep state has made him go completely rogue.
[They] “don’t want the FBI to coordinate a norm. They want to hammer the norm,” Meyer told CNN.
The Trump transition team’s decision to bypass the FBI background check comes as Trump has nominated former Reps. Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard for attorney general and National Intelligence director, respectively — both controversial picks.
Gaetz was previously at the focus of a Justice Department investigation regarding sex trafficking allegations, but the department did not charge him. The House Ethics Committee also investigated Gaetz, but that investigation ended after he resigned from his position in Congress to accept his nomination.
As for Gabbard, she’s previously made comments sympathetic to the United States’ foreign adversaries.
She met with Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose regime is backed by Iran and Russia, in 2017 and then said two years later he was “not an enemy of the United States.”
Tulsi also said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was prompted by the U.S. ignoring the Kremlin’s concerns about Ukraine joining NATO.
During his 2016 transition, Trump ignored protocol and ordered that 25 appointees be granted a security clearance. However, the application was denied for possible security concerns.
However, Trump doesn’t have the power to force security clearances and briefings until after his inauguration.
Mirroring 2016, Trump’s transition team is opting not to adhere to protocol by not signing memorandums of understanding and secrecy agreements and sending a list of names to officials of people who need to be formally vetted.
Considering the FBI’s corruption, unlawful actions, and trampling of civil liberties, going around the agency is a good move.
The allegations against Gaetz were proven false.
I do have some reservations about Tulsi Gabbard. Meeting with a leader of an Islamic terrorist nation-state, who allowed Al Qaeda to run a ‘rat line’ though his country during the Iraq war, isn’t a good look.