Donald Trump's effort to strongarm the Senate into adjourning and letting him appoint nominees without any review was sharply condemned in a joint editorial for The New York Times by Noah Bookbinder and Gregg Nunziata, a Democratic and Republican aide who previously advised the Senate Judiciary Committee.
This comes amid reporting that the Trump administration also wants to bypass FBI background checks of his nominees for now, raising the possibility of doing them retroactively once he appoints a new FBI director — even though the sitting director, Christopher Wray, was himself a Trump appointee. All of this may ultimately be a violation of the Presidential Transition Act.
"Efforts to bypass F.B.I. background checks and even Senate confirmation itself via mass recess appointments, made by the president when the Senate is not in session, never would have flown with past iterations of the Judiciary Committee, regardless of which party was in charge," the two former aides wrote. "The Senate shouldn’t stand for it now."
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When Bookbinder and Nunziata were advising the Senate, they wrote, "A nomination was never scheduled for committee consideration without the committee receiving an F.B.I. background check, reviewing it and clearing the nomination to move forward." And for good reason: "The nominees evaluated by the committee, if confirmed, would occupy positions of great importance; they make decisions every day that affect national security as well the lives of ordinary Americans. Those decisions include who is charged with crimes, who goes to prison, how the legal system and justice system work and how we treat civil rights and environmental laws."
While there are always partisan dogfights during Judiciary Committee confirmations, they wrote, "disagreements about nominations never extended to the background investigation. No nominee would have moved forward to a committee hearing or vote without a meaningful review. Mr. Trump’s nominees should be treated no differently."
Ultimately, one expert recently suggested, Trump's plan may already be doomed, as his withdrawal of former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) for attorney general may be a recognition that the Senate will not agree to adjourn for controversial nominees who couldn't get the votes anyway.
