Teegh (T.J.) Marsh

Here's a summary of the letter from Robin Carnahan to President-elect Donald Trump regarding the transition process, presented in bullet points: - **Non-Compliance with Transition Protocols:** - The Trump Vance 2025 Transition has not signed memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with the outgoing Biden-Harris Administration, which is unprecedented since the creation of these agreements. - **Ethics and Transparency:** - The Trump Transition has failed to publish an ethics plan as required by the Presidential Transition Enhancement Act, which was signed into law by Trump in 2020. - The ethics code provided by the Trump team does not address how Trump will manage his own financial conflicts of interest, raising concerns about corruption. - **National Security and Governance Readiness:** - The refusal to sign MOUs hampers the incoming administration's ability to manage national security emergencies, public health threats, and governance from day one. - Without these agreements, the transition team lacks access to vital national security information, briefings, secure IT infrastructure, and cannot initiate FBI background checks for nominees. - **Legal and Historical Context:** - The Presidential Transition Act mandates that transition teams sign MOUs with GSA for administrative support and with the White House for access to resources. The Trump Transition has missed these deadlines. - Historical examples, like the delayed transition post-2000 election, illustrate the risks of unpreparedness, including potential national security vulnerabilities. - **Specific Concerns:** - The lack of MOUs means the transition relies on private funding without public transparency, potentially exposing the process to financial corruption. - This situation could lead to the U.S. being less prepared against adversaries, echoing concerns raised by past transitions and commissions. - **Requests for Information:** - Carnahan requests details on: - What the Presidential Transition Act expects from the Trump Transition. - The current compliance status of the Trump Transition with these expectations. - How GSA is engaging with the Trump team. - The impacts of non-compliance on GSA's responsibilities and national security. - **Call for Action:** - Carnahan emphasizes the need for Congress to understand these implications to possibly strengthen transition laws, given this unprecedented refusal to comply with established procedures.