Why Trump is Potentially Avoiding Routine Review of Political Appointees Is Concerning

As former President Trump’s transition team considers bypassing routine background checks on his political appointees, observers, experts and lawmakers are warning about the implications the plan could have for national security and who has access to government secrets.

Trump’s team is pushing a proposal to avoid the FBI’s standard vetting process for potential appointees during the transition period. New York Times reported this week, deciding instead — if it supports the proposal — to contract with a private firm to conduct the investigations. Trump, if he wins the election, will then unilaterally appoint these people to his appointed positions once he takes office.

Experts acknowledge that the president has the authority to remove the FBI from the equation, and some levels of government are already conducting contract reviews of employees who require security clearances. However, the actual decision to issue a permit is defined in law as a government function and is usually carried out at the agency level or, in the case of presidential aides and staff, the White House Security Office. Trump’s cancellation of this process raised alarm bells.

“What matters is who makes the decision,” said Lindy Kaiser, chief content officer at ClearanceJobs.com. “If the president chose to, he could bypass the entire White House human resources department and appoint his own office or agency — or himself — to make the judicial decision.”

Trump aides are circulating the proposal, the newspaper reported. Timedoes not specify which appointees will be subject to the new process. Steve Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, told the newspaper that the former president is concerned about the Justice Department’s objectivity and will use the “full power of the presidency” to shape his administration.

Each new administration must fill about 4,000 political government positions, about 1,200 of which require Senate confirmation. Positions not confirmed by the Senate can be created much more quickly, provided those who need them have at least a temporary security clearance in hand. President Biden swore in 1,100 appointees on his first day in office; Trump did this for 500 people when his first term began.

While the standard vetting process for political appointees is set out in a series of executive orders and interagency agreements rather than written into law, experts cautioned that the rules exist for a reason.

“The prospect of President Trump’s team bypassing the FBI in its security clearance process for appointees is deeply troubling,” said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, a good government group that runs the Center for Presidential Transition. “Our government’s primary mission is to ensure public safety, and a president who ignores law enforcement when vetting key appointees could put our country at grave risk.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, suggested Trump aides are making the proposal because they would otherwise not be eligible for security clearances.

“Gaining FBI clearance to our nation’s most guarded secrets requires unquestioned loyalty to the United States, a test that Trump and his cronies, prime examples of plutocratic globalization and ‘elite capture,’ know they will never pass.” – said Raskin.

The challenges go beyond simply processing security clearances. Political appointees who require Senate confirmation also must disclose their personal financial interests and enter into ethics agreements before they are considered by lawmakers.

“If Trump is willing to jeopardize national security by bypassing the careful adjudication of security clearances for his appointees, there is no reason to believe that he and his allies in the Senate will adhere to (this) traditional practice,” said Walter Shaub, former Director of the Office of Government Ethics.

Without disclosed ethical agreements, Schaub added, bad actors could try to pressure or seduce appointees. The Trump transition team has not yet agreed to the terms of formal work with the Biden administration on transition activities, including an ethics agreement for those employees.

“If he skips both the security clearance and ethics processes, the Senate could find itself voting on nominees with unknown, dangerous ties to hostile foreign powers and unresolved conflicts of interest,” Schaub said. “Both failures would jeopardize national security.”

Sean Michael Newhouse contributed to this report..