President Donald Trump could bypass FBI background checks and grant immediate security clearance to numerous appointees who may not be able to pass traditional vetting hurdles, according to a memorandum drafted by his aides. It is said that there is a sex.
The memo, promoted by Boris Epshteyn, the former president’s senior legal adviser, was originally designed to protect national security as an obvious way to pack the new government with loyalists. They are calling on the president to abolish the time-honored custom. Rather than the entire US government.
The measure would eliminate the risk that President Trump’s nominees for senior positions would be subject to intrusive background checks aimed at checking for criminal records, conflicts of interest, or other potential liability that would normally be considered disqualifying. The purpose is to
The proposal, first reported by the New York Times, also recommends hiring private investigators and researchers to carry out the scrutiny previously conducted by the FBI and other government agencies that President Trump has become increasingly suspicious of. are.
The aim is to ensure that several appointees, including the former president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Epshteyn himself, were granted long-term security clearances while the agency conducted extensive and intrusive inspections during the Trump era. Avoid repeating the experience of time delay.
Kushner, who served as a senior White House adviser and special envoy to the Middle East in the Trump administration, was subject to a months-long background check for reasons that were never disclosed until the then-president finally overrode the process and ordered him cleared. I received it.
Background checks on government appointees are part of the U.S. system for protecting national security secrets, dating back to World War II and the early Cold War.
But the bill is based on executive orders and memorandums rather than Congressional legislation, giving Trump the leeway to overturn long-standing conventions if elected.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision gave the president, in his role as commander-in-chief of the military, ultimate authority over decisions regarding the sharing and restriction of national security information.
Mr. Trump and his advisers have long harbored suspicions about the FBI’s background check system, believing it could be used to mine potential appointees’ personal information and do political harm. There is.
The former president, who has long distrusted the FBI and has accused it of being part of a “deep state” conspiracy aimed at undermining him, will exclude it from the vetting process. It is unclear whether he saw the memo suggesting this.
Under the terms of the current memorandum, the bureau conducts investigations into potential White House staff appointees, including by investigators scouring law enforcement databases and getting to know them. This includes interviewing people.
Testing criteria include criminal activity, psychological status, personal behavior, alcohol and drug abuse, foreign contacts, and personal financial status.
If no red flags are found during the initial inspection, a provisional permit will be granted. However, access to more sensitive information will be restricted until permanent permission is obtained.
In 2019, White House whistleblower Tricia Newbold told a Congressional hearing that at least 25 employees and contractors were denied FBI clearance due to “disqualification issues” that could threaten national security. However, he said it had been authorized by the Trump administration anyway. . The identities of the 25 people have not been disclosed, but one of them is believed to be Kushner.
Multiple candidates for positions in the new Trump administration may not be cleared through existing procedures.
They include Peter Navarro, President Trump’s former trade adviser, who has been asked to respond to a subpoena for an investigation into the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the former president. He recently completed a four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress. After losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden. Another person could be Steve Bannon, a former White House strategist in the Trump administration who is currently in prison for a similar conviction.
