CNN
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President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is bypassing traditional FBI background checks for at least some of his Cabinet picks while using private companies to conduct vetting of potential candidates for administration jobs, people close to the transition planning say.
Trump and his allies believe the FBI system is slow and plagued with issues that could stymie the president-elect’s plan to quickly begin the work of implementing his agenda, people briefed on the plans said. Critics say the intrusive background checks sometimes turn up embarrassing information used to inflict political damage.
The discussions come as Trump has floated several controversial choices for high-level positions in the US government – including Matt Gaetz for attorney general and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.
Ultimately, the president has the final authority on who he nominates and decides to share intelligence with, regardless of the established protocol set in the wake of World War II to make sure those selections don’t have unknown foreign ties or other issues that could raise national security concerns.
But circumventing background checks would be bucking a long-established norm in Washington. It also reflects Trump’s deep mistrust of the national security establishment, which he derides as the Deep State. Sources say he has privately questioned the need for law enforcement background checks.
Dan Meyer, a national security attorney in Washington, DC, said the incoming Trump administration “doesn’t want harmony.” They “don’t want the FBI to coordinate a norm; they want to hammer the norm,” he said.
Some of Trump’s advisers began circulating a memo before the election, urging him to bypass the traditional background check process for some of his appointees, a source briefed on the memo told CNN. Instead of using law enforcement, the memo proposed hiring private researchers who could move more quickly to perform background checks.
The president-elect could always, however, decide to eventually submit names to the FBI.
Some of Trump’s picks for roles in his administration could run into problems during a background check, posing potential hurdles during the confirmation process.
Gaetz has been mired for years in Justice Department and House ethics investigations related to sex trafficking. The Justice Department declined to charge Gaetz, and the House ethics probe, days away from being completed, was effectively ended when the Florida congressman resigned from his seat this week. Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Gabbard, meanwhile, has frequently appeared to take positions more favorable to foreign leaders widely considered not just American adversaries but, in some cases, brutal dictators, including the presidents of Syria and Russia, raising questions from allies and critics alike.
Gabbard notably met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria in 2017, and said in 2019 that he was “not an enemy of the United States.”
In early 2022, she echoed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rationale for the country’s invasion of Ukraine, pinning the blame not on Moscow but on the Biden administration’s failure to acknowledge “Russia’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO” — a popular strain of thought in some right-wing circles.
In addition to the confirmation process, FBI background checks are used to vet nominees for a security clearance, which an attorney general nominee is required to have to do the job.
As president, Trump could bypass the process and order Gaetz to be granted a security clearance, as he did in his first term to grant a clearance to his son-in-law Jared Kushner after the approval languished amid questions about potential conflicts of interest.
Trump ordered clearances to be granted to about 25 people whose applications were initially denied for possible national security concerns, CNN previously reported.
If Gaetz does not participate in the vetting process, the FBI could still try to do a basic investigation at the request of the Senate. But one source familiar with the process noted that it is difficult to collect some data without his consent.
US officials are still waiting for the Trump transition team to submit a list of names, including those under consideration for Cabinet-level roles, to be formally vetted for security clearances, the source said.
Trump’s team has, to date, resisted participating in the formal transition process, which includes signing memorandums of understanding and secrecy agreements typically considered a prerequisite for accessing classified material before the new administration assumes office.
Instead, Trump’s transition team has been focused on conducting its own internal vetting of candidates for top administration jobs.
The delay in vetting candidates for clearances also impacts the timing of classified briefings for incoming administration officials, according to the source familiar with the process.
While Trump will have the authority to override any vetting concerns and grant access to sensitive material once he takes office, he won’t be able to do so until he is sworn in on January 20. So if Trump’s team continues to skirt the vetting process, those tapped for key roles wouldn’t be able to receive briefings until then.
The Trump team’s lack of urgency when it comes to pre-vetting individuals for national security positions isn’t surprising and is consistent with how he handled the transition process after the 2016 election, the source said. Trump’s team was “ill-prepared” for taking over in 2017, so the current lack of interest in participating in the vetting process is “par for the course, maybe,” the source added.
Submitting individuals who have current access to classified material or were previously vetted could help move the process along while those with no US government experience will take some time. Trump’s pick of Rep. Mike Waltz as national security adviser, is one such example.
