President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team said Tuesday it has reached an agreement with the Justice Department that lays the groundwork for the department to conduct background checks and begin the security clearance process for Trump administration nominees and appointees.
The agreement comes amid controversy over some of Trump’s picks for senior government positions, including leadership at the Department of Defense, Health and Human Services, the FBI and the position of director of national intelligence.
A deal to have the FBI, a division of the Justice Department, conduct background checks on nominees and appointees could make some U.S. senators more willing to vote to confirm Trump for such positions than they would be without such a deal. choose.
Incoming White House Chief of Staff Susie Wells said in a statement: “The agreement with the Department of Justice will ensure that President Trump and his team are ready on day one to begin enacting the policies that the vast majority of us will work on.” Support the ‘America First Agenda’.
The Trump transition team said its memorandum of understanding with the Justice Department “allows the transition team to submit names for background checks and security clearances.”
“Ultimately, this will provide more insight into the transition process and help our agency landing teams have the information they need to prepare federal agency and department leadership,” the transition team said in a statement.
The MOU was announced a day after The New Yorker published an article detailing allegations of alcoholism, sexual misconduct and mismanagement of two nonprofit veterans groups by Pete Hegseth. Trump has appointed him as the next secretary of defense.
Shortly after Trump announced plans to nominate Hegseth, it was reported that the former Fox News anchor was under police investigation for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman at a Republican event in California in 2017, but had not been criminally charged.
Trump’s original nominee for U.S. Attorney General Matt Gaetz withdrew from the race on November 21 after former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz had an affair with a 17-year-old girl in 2017 Allegations of sexual relations are again in the spotlight.
Over the weekend, Trump said he would name his longtime loyalist Kash Patel as FBI director.
Patel last year vowed to target judges, lawyers and journalists who he believed were politically motivated to investigate Trump.
“Whether it’s criminal or civil, we’re going to address it — but, yes, we’re going to bring it to all of your attention,” Patel told former Trump White House aide Steve Bannon in an interview. “We’re actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they say we’ve always committed but never committed.”
Trump’s choice of former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence is another controversial choice.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that she could be a Russian asset,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz, D-Fla., told MSNBC, referring to Gabbard who would be in danger if she were elected to the Senate. Confirmed, she will oversee 18 U.S. intelligence agencies as director of national intelligence.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Trump appointee who is a vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theory pusher, used heroin for years as a teenager.
Democratic senators have been particularly insistent that all Trump nominees require background checks before they can be considered for Senate confirmation.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told NBC News on Tuesday that Hegseth’s nomination is part of an “ongoing conversation” among senators about Trump’s nominees.
“However, it is certainly appropriate to conduct an FBI background check” to help clear up the charges against Hegseth, Fetterman said.
“My God, you know, if you’re going to be in charge of the deadliest organization in human history … it’s totally appropriate to have a full FBI background,” the senator said.
The incoming Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who will preside over Hegseth’s confirmation hearing, said Tuesday that some members of his party have concerns about Hegseth.
“Some members have raised some questions, and we’re going to seek answers,” Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, told NBC News.
-Additional reporting by CNBC Christina Wilkie
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