The FBI will not be able to withhold clearances from Trump's Cabinet nominees, a former FBI assistant director has said.
Frank Figliuzzi was reacting to news that Trump's Cabinet is examining third-party security firms for background checks, to avoid what the president-elect believes is a politicized and Democrat-controlled FBI.
Figliuzzi is the former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, where he served 25 years as a special agent and directed all espionage investigations.
"The FBI does not have the authority to deny clearances for White House Cabinet-level nominees," Figliuzzi told Newsweek.
"However, the FBI does conduct extensive background investigations of nominees and provides those reports to the White House, which traditionally provides copies to the Senate Judiciary Committee," he said.
The Senate is responsible for approving Cabinet members and may be influenced by any scandals or convictions in the backgrounds of Trump's nominees. The names of the Cabinet nominees first go before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
On Wednesday, the outgoing Democratic chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin, said that hiring an outside agency to rubber-stamp Trump's Cabinet picks was the equivalent of "speed dating."
"You can't do a speed-dating process for the Cabinet of the president of the United States without ending up embarrassed," he told reporters gathered at the Senate.
Senior Republicans continued to discuss the possibility of using third-party security agencies for background checks even as the Justice Department reached an agreement with Trump on how the FBI's background checks would occur.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department and Trump's transition team signed a memo on how the process should occur.
"While the memo released Tuesday allows Trump's team to fully rely on the FBI for checks into nominees, top Republican senators are not ruling out the use of third parties, even if it breaks precedent," the news website Semafor reported on Wednesday.
It noted that Senate Republican leader John Thune of South Dakota alluded this week to the possibility of "other alternatives" to the FBI.
The presumptive incoming Judiciary Committee chairman, the Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, said he could sign off on a third-party check.
"I believe that it would speed things up tremendously if we have background checks. And I've heard a couple of senators say that they didn't want to vote for anybody that didn't have a background check," Grassley told Semafor. "Inside or outside, it's got to be somebody who's got the resources to do it."
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that confusion still surrounds the exact nature of the agreement between Justice and the Trump team.
"Despite the signing of the agreement, it remains unclear whether Mr. Trump's team plans to send the names of all officials requiring a security clearance or Senate confirmation to the FBI for vetting. The announcement did not say whether Mr. Trump would require his appointees to undergo the process or was simply allowing the FBI to begin looking at those who are willing to submit to its scrutiny," it reported.
On December 1, President-elect Trump nominated his longtime aide Kash Patel to serve as the next director of the FBI.
In a Truth Social post, Trump lauded Patel for having done an "incredible job during my First Term, where he served as Chief of Staff at the Department of Defense, Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council."
Patel has publicly railed against the "deep state" political establishment and called to root out government employees deemed insufficiently loyal to Trump.
Patel singled out many of those people in his book, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy, published in September 2023.
There has already been some controversy about Trump's Cabinet picks.
Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump's pick for defense secretary, is fighting to save his nomination amid growing scrutiny of the former Fox News host's personal conduct and his ability to win Senate confirmation.
Hegseth, a former Army National Guard major and combat veteran, is facing questions about his ability to lead the Pentagon amid a sexual assault allegation—which he has denied—and reports about excessive drinking and his work conduct.
Newsweek contacted Trump's transition team and Hegseth's attorney via email for further comment on Friday.
The questions surrounding Hegseth come after Trump's first pick for attorney general, former Representative Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration amid doubts about his ability to win Senate confirmation following a federal sex trafficking investigation and a House Ethics Committee probe.
The Justice Department probe stemmed from accusations that Gaetz was involved in recruiting women online for sex, including a 17-year-old girl, and ended last year without any charges against him. Gaetz has strongly denied any wrongdoing.
Newsweek sought email comment from Gaetz on Friday.
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