Donald Trump's ethics and transparency promises may be a violation of the Presential Transition Act, a report suggests.
The former and incoming president raised eyebrows by missing a key deadline for signing transition agreements with the White House. He ultimately signed most of the needed documents, but failed to sign one allowing the FBI to perform background checks on his administration's nominees, according to analysts.
This failure to finalize a transition deal adds "a wrinkle to its transparency pledges," the New York Times reported on Thursday.
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"The president-elect’s team said it would disclose its donors’ names and not take donations from foreigners, but it isn’t legally bound to adhere to those promises," Simon J. Levien wrote.
Levien further noted that Trump's team provided an ethics pledge as part of the transition process, "but the pledge may not be compliant with transition rules," according to the reporter.
The report continues:
"This week, Mr. Trump’s team published an ethics plan for its transition staff. Though President Biden’s staff accepted the plan in its agreement with Mr. Trump, the plan may run afoul of the Presidential Transition Act, which mandates that such plans detail how a president-elect himself will address his own conflicts of interest. Mr. Trump’s plan does not appear to do that. Representatives for the Trump transition team and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment."
