Trump still hasn’t signed ethics agreement required for presidential transition

By Betsy Klein and Alayna Treene, CNN

(CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump has not yet submitted a series of transition agreements with the Biden administration, in part because of concerns over the mandatory ethics pledge vowing to avoid conflicts of interest once sworn in to office, CNN has learned.

As president, Trump repeatedly came under fire from ethics groups for potential conflicts of interest relating to his businesses and brands. Both Trump’s and his family’s foreign business ties have also come under intense scrutiny throughout his time in office and on the campaign trail.

Trump and his transition team are already behind in accessing key transition briefings from the Biden administration, as they have failed to sign a pair of agreements to unlock critical information before taking over the federal government in 72 days.

The holdup revolves in part around the mandatory agreement over ethics issues.

A source familiar with the process acknowledged that details are still being worked out with the Biden administration regarding the ethics agreement, which is required by law under the Presidential Transition Act and which applies to all members of the transition team. Updates to that bill requiring the ethics pledge were introduced by Trump ally Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, and signed into law by Trump himself in March 2020.

The source would not expand further on the Trump team’s concerns over the ethics pledge.

Trump’s most recent financial disclosures as a candidate showed that he has continued to make millions off his properties, books and licensing deals. He and his family recently launched a new cryptocurrency business.

A sizable share of his net worth, meanwhile, is tied to the publicly traded parent company of Truth Social, the conservative social media network. Trump is the dominant shareholder and said Friday that he has no intention of selling his 114.75 million shares, worth about $3.7 billion.

The Trump team ignored a pair of key preelection deadlines to unlock transition activities with the Biden administration’s General Services Administration and the White House. Experts are sounding the alarms about impacts to Day 1 national security preparedness.

The GSA agreement, due September 1, gives Trump’s team access to office space and secure communications, among other provisions. And the White House agreement, due October 1, serves as the gatekeeper for access to agencies and information and lays groundwork for Trump’s team to receive security clearances necessary to begin receiving classified information. The ethics agreement was also due by October 1.

The Trump adviser told CNN the president-elect intends to sign the ethics pledge, but said the transition team’s main priority is selecting and vetting candidates for top Cabinet roles. It is unclear when Trump will sign the pledge.

The adviser played down the skipped deadlines, saying it is “not at all a concern,” but nonpartisan watchdogs and Democrats have warned that the failure to sign those agreements could pose a risk to national security.

Trump’s team could have begun receiving briefings from federal agencies as early as Thursday had it signed the agreements, according to Valerie Smith Boyd, director of the Center for Presidential Transition at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. Boyd estimated that “hundreds” of Trump officials involved in the transition will need background checks to receive classified briefings.

Max Stier, the Partnership for Public Service’s president and CEO, warned of “severe” consequences if the Trump transition continues to fail to engage with President Joe Biden’s team.

“Is it possible just to walk past all this? And the answer is that it is possible — and we’re watching it happen. But the consequences are severe. It would not be possible to be ready to govern on Day 1 without engaging” in interactions with agencies about the state of play within the federal government and the world writ large, Stier said.

Transition, he added, is a “point of maximum vulnerability” for US security.

“A new team coming in walks in with the responsibility of taking over the most complex operation on the planet and maybe the world. And in order to do that effectively, they absolutely need to have done a lot of prework,” Stier said.

If Trump is inaugurated in January without having participated in these activities, Stier warned, “He can’t be ready to take over our government in a way that is safe for all of us. It is simply not possible. You will not have the larger team around him that is essential to running our government up to speed and available to enter into leadership positions across our government.”

White House chief of staff Jeff Zients reached out to the heads of the Trump transition effort Wednesday to stress the Biden administration’s commitment to “lead an orderly transition” process and to highlight the necessary agreements needed to move forward, a White House official told CNN.

“Today, Chief of Staff Jeff Zients reached out to Trump-Vance Transition Co-Chairs Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon to make clear our intention to lead an orderly transition and reiterate the role the agreements play in initiating transition activities,” the official said Wednesday.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, warned in a letter to Trump in the weeks before the election that ignoring transition deadlines departs “from well-established norms of federal government and demonstrate a spectacular disregard for the successful continuation of the essential institutions of American democratic government.”

Raskin said that without the memoranda in place, the transfer of power is endangered and could “threaten our national security.”

That has been a problem in the past: In 2000, as the Supreme Court awaited a recount in Florida, neither George W. Bush’s nor Al Gore’s teams were participating in a transition, something the 9/11 Commission Report found was a contributing factor to the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

CNN’s Arlette Saenz and Fredreka Schouten contributed to this report.

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