Trump Is Skipping Most Important Step in Cabinet Vetting Process

Historically, presidential Cabinet picks are background-checked by the FBI—but Donald Trump’s administration has instead opted to rely on private companies to examine his appointments, a decision that could allow him to practically shoe-in some of his most controversial candidates.

Trump and his team are attempting to avoid a process that they believe is both excessively slow and intrusive, and which turns up dirt that could later be turned into political leverage by their opponents, according to sources that spoke with CNN.

The FBI has conducted the president’s background checks since President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration, providing critical security clearance to confirm that malicious foreign agents aren’t infiltrating the highest rungs of government.

But the decision to move away from traditional security expectations has the dual effect of helping the incoming administration circumvent a particularly grueling process for a pool of candidates who are, by all means, dangerously bizarre and inexperienced.

His choice for director of national intelligence, former Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard, regularly amplifies Russian propaganda and conspiracy theories. Her role would have her oversee 18 intelligence agencies, but critics—even in the House Intelligence Committee—have drawn attention to the danger of her nomination considering her particular affinity for foreign dictators like Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump’s pick for attorney general, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, has been the subject of several major controversies. Perhaps most notably, he was the subject of a House Ethics investigation that accused him of sex trafficking a minor, and was also faced with a related investigation by the Justice Department. (The conveniently timed appointment—and Gaetz’s subsequent resignation—had the added benefit of killing the House investigation into Gaetz’s alleged misconduct with women and minors.) Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.

And Trump tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—a virulent vaccine conspiracy theorist with a wild history that included propping up a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park for fun—to run the Department of Health and Human Services. Last week, it was leaked that the administration did not believe Kennedy would pass the bar for a security clearance—but that could all change with Trump’s decision to veer away from the federal standard.

National security experts in Washington believe that the decision to outsource the clearances is further evidence that Trump—who has a known history of benefiting from Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election—“doesn’t want harmony.”

They “don’t want the FBI to coordinate a norm; they want to hammer the norm,” Dan Meyer, a national security attorney, told CNN.