{"id":34938,"date":"2024-11-19T14:02:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T20:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=34938"},"modified":"2024-11-20T00:03:01","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T06:03:01","slug":"gop-senators-deride-idea-of-replacing-fbi-background-checks-for-trump-nominees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=34938","title":{"rendered":"GOP senators deride idea of replacing FBI background checks for Trump nominees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Senate Republicans are rejecting a proposal floated by some advisers to President-elect Trump\u2002<\/u><\/a>to take the job of conducting background checks for high-level nominees away from the FBI and give it to private investigators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doing so could make it easier for some nominees to win Senate confirmation, but GOP senators say the FBI should retain its leading role in conducting background checks. They argue its agents have access to criminal information that private investigators simply can\u2019t match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while many Trump allies don\u2019t trust the FBI, many GOP senators think the agency sets the gold standard for professionalism and credibility in law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FBI also leads the nation\u2019s domestic counterespionage efforts, serving as the lead agency for investigating and preventing foreign intelligence gathering activities in the United States. Republican senators think that role puts it in a good position to vet nominees who would have access to the nation\u2019s most sensitive secrets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe FBI should do the background checks, in my judgement,\u201d said Sen. Susan Collins\u2002<\/u><\/a>(Maine), who serves as the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense and as a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Kevin Cramer\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-N.D.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, argued that the FBI has access to information gathered by law enforcement on the federal, state and local levels that private firms don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you wanted to supplement it with a private firm, I\u2019d say OK. But the FBI does have access to information that probably a private firm wouldn\u2019t have, even a really good savvy one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cramer said a private firm could help the FBI in its background investigations, but he \u201csure wouldn\u2019t leave it\u201d entirely outside the FBI\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Lisa Murkowski\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Alaska) argued \u201cit\u2019s just been routine\u201d for the nation\u2019s top law enforcement agency to handle background checks for high-level appointments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is important to do these background checks, and the FBI has done this\u201d for decades, she noted. \u201cIt\u2019s just been routine that they have been the one that has handled it. You don\u2019t go to an outside private investigator, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just for the [executive branch] positions. If you\u2019re a Senate staffer seeking to get that security clearance, you go \u2014 we all go \u2014 through that same process,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI get there is distrust by some of different agencies, and the FBI is not immune from that, but I do think it is vitally important, particularly from a national security perspective, that you have a level of vetting that is thorough,\u201d Murkowski added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat agenda does the private investigator have?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNN reported Friday that Trump\u2019s transition team has bypassed traditional background checks for some of his Cabinet nominees, using private companies to vet the choices instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s team has circumvented the FBI because of concerns it would move too slowly and bog down the president-elect\u2019s push to confirm his Cabinet quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New York Times reported in late October that Trump\u2019s advisers circulated a memo suggesting that if Trump won, many of his appointees should gain security clearances immediately without having to go through time-consuming FBI background checks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposal was pushed by Boris Epshteyn, among others, according to the Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epshteyn was one of the Trump advisers who supported the president-elect choosing former Rep. Matt Gaetz\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Fla.) to serve as attorney general, despite a House Ethics Committee investigation of alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use by the former Florida lawmaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Mike Rounds\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-S.D.) said not having the FBI conduct background checks for high-level nominees by the time Trump formally appoints them next year \u201cwould come under scrutiny at the congressional level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said lawmakers \u201cwould want to know the validity of those individuals doing the background checks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust because the White House doesn\u2019t request a background check out of the FBI wouldn\u2019t then mean perhaps some committees might not ask for it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaetz is among Trump\u2019s most controversial nominees. He came under new scrutiny Monday after an attorney representing two women who testified before the House Ethics Committee told ABC News that Gaetz paid two of his clients for sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those women testified to the panel that she saw Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17 at the time, according to the attorney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another bombshell dropped over the weekend when The Washington Post reported Pete Hegseth, whom Trump will nominate to serve as secretary of Defense, paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault as part of a nondisclosure agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lawyer for Hegseth told the Post the incident was consensual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,<\/u><\/a> whom Trump will nominate to head the Department of Health and Human Services, has been accused by a former Harvard University classmate of selling cocaine when they were students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kurt Andersen, a best-selling author, claims Kennedy poured out a line of cocaine for him to sample in a dorm room, and he paid $40 for a gram of powder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another Trump pick who might be headed for a lengthy background investigation is former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard\u2002<\/u><\/a>(Hawaii), who is slated to serve as director of national intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republican and Democratic lawmakers want to know more about Gabbard\u2019s secret four-day trip to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2017. Syria is on the State Department\u2019s list of state sponsors of terrorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who has jurisdiction over the Justice Department and FBI, argued the FBI brings a level of credibility that private firms can\u2019t match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe notion that we\u2019re going to eliminate FBI background checks, we\u2019re going to have recess appointments, no questions asked, is to ignore a body of experience in Congress and law that suggests that\u2019s the height of irresponsibility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe bottom line is the FBI has been doing this for decades, and they\u2019re credible; they\u2019re an important part of the process. You pick a private firm, and I\u2019ll tell you you\u2019ll find a conflict of interest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senate Republicans are rejecting a proposal floated by some advisers to President-elect Trump\u2002to take the job of conducting background checks for high-level nominees away from the FBI and give it to private investigators. Doing so could make it easier for some nominees to win Senate confirmation, but GOP senators say the FBI should retain its leading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1264,31297,8571,1541,25207],"class_list":["post-34938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-gop","tag-replace-trump","tag-ridicule","tag-senators","tag-the-fbi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34940,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34938\/revisions\/34940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}