THE Trump transition team signed an agreement with the current administration that will unlock access to resources to continue the transition process, but the Trump team has said it will not sign another critical transition agreement with the General Services Administration that would make the transition safer and more transparent, Biden said. The White House said Tuesday.
Biden White House officials said Tuesday that President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has not yet agreed to the terms of a memorandum of understanding with the Justice Department that will allow applications to be processed security clearance.
The General Services Administration is an independent federal agency that is in charge of federal offices, but also supports transition teams, presidential inauguration work, and, under the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, must regularly report to Congress on the status of transition planning.
Since September – well before the election – the White House and the agency have asked the Trump transition team to sign both a White House memorandum of understanding and a US administration memorandum of understanding. general services, as Republicans and Democrats have done in previous transitions, White said. Saloni Sharma, House spokesperson. The Trump team announced Tuesday that it had signed the White House deal.
“After completing his new Cabinet selection process, President-elect Trump is entering the next phase of his administration’s transition by signing a memorandum of understanding with President Joe Biden’s White House,” the new chief said of Trump’s White House staff, Susie Wiles. “This commitment allows our considered Cabinet nominees to begin essential preparations, including the deployment of landing teams to every ministry and agency, and complete the orderly transition of power.”
The signing of the White House agreement allows authorized members of Trump’s team access to facilities, information and employees of the White House and its agencies.
But because the Trump team refuses to sign a similar agreement with the General Services Administration, office space, secure email addresses and funding for transition staff and other activities will not be provided by the GSA, a Sharma said. She said the White House would work to protect nonpublic information and prevent conflicts of interest, despite the lack of a signed memo.
And although White House officials say progress has been made toward a memorandum of understanding between the Trump team and the Justice Department, White House officials say no DOJ agreement has been signed. The Ministry of Justice is responsible for processing security clearance requests for new administration officials who will need access to briefing materials and national security information, and these authorizations cannot take place without a signed memorandum of understanding between the transition team of Trump and the Justice Department.
The Justice Department, not the White House or the General Services Administration, is responsible for security clearances for transition personnel.
“To date, the DOJ memorandum of understanding has not been signed but progress has been made toward an agreement,” a Justice Department spokesperson said. “The Department of Justice stands ready to process security clearance requests for those who will need access to briefing materials and national security information once the MOU is signed, which , we hope, will happen very soon.”
Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center who focuses on presidential transitions, said the terms of the memorandum of understanding presented by Wiles reflect, in her assessment, a transition team effort of Trump to protect himself from transparency.
“They’re kind of making it up as they go along, because it’s never been done like this before,” she said.
Although Wiles suggested that not signing the General Services Administration document would save taxpayer money, the use of taxpayer money comes with strings attached – specifically, more transparency and documentation requirements, Dunn Tenpas said.
“If you take government resources, the memorandum with the GSA requires that you then have to report all donations to the transition, and they cannot exceed $5,000 per person,” she said. “It’s two things: first, they want to keep the identities of their donors confidential and if they don’t accept GSA money, they don’t have to disclose anything – and second, they have some supporters , like Miriam Adelson and Elon Musk who are billionaires… So this idea of getting $7 million from the government to help jumpstart your transition is just not as attractive as it could have been. for the Harris campaign, but I think more importantly, they probably don’t. I don’t want people to know that so-and-so gave $2 billion to the transition.”
Additionally, government servers — unlike, say, private Gmail accounts during a transition — are more secure and subject to the federal Freedom of Information Act, she said. FOIA allows citizens to request communications and other records.
“GSA wants them to use government computers because they think they have more security within their networks, and they are concerned that if they do government business on the transition to a private network, it could be hacked more easily.” » said Dunn Tenpas. “They say things like the transition already have security and information protection measures built in, which means we won’t need additional government and bureaucratic oversight. But the other reason is if they connect to government computers, then all those emails will be submitted.” to FOIA requests.
and Robert Legare contributed to this report.
