US President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has reportedly taken help from private companies to conduct vetting of potential candidates for administrative roles. The team has bypassed the traditional background checks through the FBI for some of Mr Trump’s Cabinet picks.
People close to the transition planning told CNN that Donald Trump and his allies feel that the system of the law enforcement agency is “slow,” besides being plagued with issues which might prevent him from immediately starting the work of implementing his agenda.
However, critics have said that the intrusive background checks at times bring to the fore embarrassing information that can be used to inflict political damage.
This comes after the President-elect has floated some controversial choices for the high-level positions in the new US government, including Tulsi Gabbard as the new Director of National Intelligence and Matt Gaetz for Attorney General.
In the US, the president, ultimately, has the final authority on whom he/she wants to nominate to share intelligence with, regardless of the established protocol that was set in the wake of the Second World War to ensure the ones selected do not have any unknown foreign ties as well as other issues which may raise national security concerns.
According to CNN, bypassing the background checks could be bucking a long-established norm in Washington as it reflects the deep mistrust Trump has of the national security establishment that he derides as the ‘Deep State’.
Sources have said Mr Trump has privately questioned the requirement for law enforcement background checks.
The incoming Trump administration “doesn’t want harmony,” said Dan Meyer, a national security attorney in Washington, DC, adding that they “don’t want the FBI to coordinate a norm; they want to hammer the norm”.
Before the November 5 presidential election, some advisers of Donald Trump circulated a memo urging him to bypass the traditional background check process for a few appointees, a person briefed on the memo noted.
The memo proposed hiring private researchers rather than taking help of the law enforcement as they could move more quickly to perform the task. However, Trump can always decide to eventually submit these names to the FBI.
A few names announced by Mr Trump for various roles in his administration might get into trouble during the background check, which could pose a potential hurdle during the confirmation process.
For multiple years, Matt Gaetz has been mired in the US Justice Department as well as House ethics investigations in connection with sex trafficking. On his behalf, he has denied any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, Tulsi Gabbard has often appeared to take position that favour foreign leaders like presidents of Syria and Russia, raising questions from critics.
In 2017, she met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and even said that he was “not an enemy” of the US.