A memorandum of understanding between the White House and President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has been signed after a protracted delay, enabling the incoming administration to interact with government agencies.
Susie Wiles, Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, said in a statement that the signing of the memo enables important preparations to start.
President-elect Trump is embarking on the next stage of his administration’s transition by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with President Joe Biden’s White House, Wiles said in a statement after concluding the selection of his incoming Cabinet.
Through the agreement, a new administration can start the presidential transition process and gain access to federal resources, including federal agency staff and documents.
Trump’s team had blown past the deadline of October 1 to engage into a memorandum of agreement with the White House during the campaign. Additionally, he failed to put into a comparable agreement with the General Services Administration by the deadline of September 1.
Lawmakers, ethics experts, and former officials all harshly criticized Trump for missing the deadlines.
When Trump declined to sign the agreements in October, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, raised concerns. As previously reported by NBC News, Raskin warned Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, in a letter that a peaceful and orderly handover of power may be jeopardized if they did not reach an agreement.
Raskin claimed that by refusing to take federal funding, Trump’s team was “breaking the precedent set by every other presidential candidate since 2010.”
Trump’s team claimed that instead of signing a deal with the General Services Administration, which would have provided them with more funds and office space to help with the transition, they chose to function independently.
According to White House spokesman Saloni Sharma, the GSA and the White House have been urging Trump’s team to sign both memos since September in accordance with custom. Sharma stated that although the White House disapproves of Trump’s decision to not sign the GSA letter, it will help ensure a seamless transition because it is the right thing to do and what is best for the American people.
We will adhere to the Presidential Transition Act’s goal, which explicitly states that any disruption caused by the transfer of executive power could have negative effects on the safety and well-being of the United States and its citizens, even though we disagree with the Trump transition team’s decision to forego signing the GSA MOU, Sharma said.
According to the terms of the White House agreement, Trump is required to make his transition team’s ethics plan available to the public on the GSA website.
The contract, which was released on Tuesday night, adhered to the typical style for these kinds of agreements, which includes a pledge to protect confidential and non-public information and to avoid conflicts of interest.
Additionally, according to White House officials, Trump’s team had not signed a deal with the Justice Department that would have permitted the FBI to run background checks on Cabinet nominees. This issue has become contentious among lawmakers ever since Trump began selecting federal agency heads.
Requests for comment Tuesday evening were not immediately answered by the Justice Department or the Trump transition team.
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