4w ago

Trump team barred from agencies amid legal standoff

Summary

Donald Trump’s transition team has been barred from accessing federal agencies due to delays in signing standard ethics and transparency agreements, leaving Cabinet nominees without access to classified or non-public data.

This standoff hampers preparation for national security, workforce, and budget issues as the administration readies for the January 20 inauguration.

Concerns include safeguarding against threats like conflicts abroad and domestic crises, such as avian flu.

The delays also risk derailing nominee confirmations, with scrutiny over FBI background checks and controversies involving key picks like Pete Hegseth and Matt Gaetz.

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“Biden refused to cooperate with us!”
- I mean it's their loss no matter who they try to blame. The transition team already isn't expecting midterms to go well for Trump, so they're trying to set as much up they can on day one. One of the things Trump wants to bring back is schedule F so that he can start firing people.
  There's a problem with tat though. It's statutory language indicates that departments will require a determination for reclassification. Absent that, everyone fired would have an opportunity to file suit and if it's enough of any given State opens the State to file Federal suit to block the executive order.
  One of the things they can do to speed things up would be to have those rosters right now to review. But that they're getting blocked because of failure to work with legally required ethics, means they'll be behind the ball on day one. As much as Trump wants to, all those employees have legally binding contracts that require careful consideration to undo them without massive challenge.
  With the President-elect's team not looking positive for midterms, they've got a lot of things to get done on their to-do list and not exactly a lot of time to do them in. Trump's agenda is already starting to suffer too much water for too narrow a drain. Every minute he's delayed is putting those to-do items from "getting done" to "must prioritize this list".
  But all of this is Trump's scales to balance. He can skip out of the ethics filings but that comes with the cost of having a bit over 70 day delay to get some of the more basic things done. And right now, he's got time on hand. Confirmation hearings aren't going on, which even Republicans in the Senate are going to be asking for favors for their State in order to stomach some of the people Trump is passing over. This is one of the reasons Trump wants to skip all of this and have recessed appointments. Trump isn't interested in playing the favors game, but every single person in Congress has their career to think about long after Trump is gone. They want wins they can go home with.
  So waiting to day one means he'll need teams reviewing the employment roster for his schedule F idea and he'll need teams in Congress helping to convince members to get his agenda enacted. He's going to have a lot of stretched thin groups which means getting things done are going to take longer to get done. Time that Trump doesn't have.
  So he can blame Biden all he wants, his followers can believe whatever they want to believe. At the end of the day, Trump's agenda either gets implemented or it doesn't. It's a pretty binary outcome. Trump is going to whine about Biden or Democrats when his policy ideas fall apart, that's just how Trump operates. He has no ability to see the issues within himself and learn from them to get better. So there's no stopping Trump from blaming everyone but himself, that's just never going to happen.
  So Trump will absolutely say that, the more important thing is his policy not getting any feet.
  Republicans are going to cry the whole way for the next four years. That's just who they are. We have to look past that dumb shit and see if things are getting green-lit or waiting on incompetence to clear out. Did Trump get it enacted or not? That's the only thing that matters, all the other shit is just the usual bullshit Republicans cry about. We've long left the whole "meet in the middle" thing, the only thing that should matter is if Trump gets any of his policy enacted or not. The EO stuff, everything he throws is just giving more ideas on which avenues to close off when Democrats take the trifecta next.
  
  Ha, you think there are going to be midterms.
  
  Honestly I think there will be. Trump has always treated anyone he considers an underling (hell, anyone who isn't him for that matter) as disposable. He said you'll never have to vote again but given he's not running for congress there's a fair chance that doesn't apply to midterms simply because he does not give a shit about any of those people.
  
  There probably will be, but election certification may make them void.
  There are a lot of effective avenues for fuckery short of just outright banning things thay ends up having the same effect.
  
  Well until Congress appeals 2 USC § 7, the law indicates that they are indeed on the schedule. But Article II leaves elections in the hands of Congress and the States to deal with. The President is very much excluded from the process.
  But I mean, SCOTUS apparently can do whatever they want. So it's literally could be anything at this point. So who knows? But till 2 USC § 7 is removed, that's what puts it on everyone's calendar. And so far, most of the Courts seem to not hold that particular law in question.
  
  "Since there's so much evidence that the midterm elections are rigged, we're going to have to postpone them."
  
  That's not a power the President has. The President cannot postpone them and they aren't included as an emergency power. So he can't call an emergency and suspend elections. And yes, we've got precedent from the Civil War that elections can't be suspended when we're at war with ourselves.
  States can remove themselves, but that just means fewer folks arrive in Congress. Unless the President forcefully dissolves Congress, which would require a lot of the military being okay with murdering elected officials, only Congress can have a say on the law.
  The President can indicate that they're rigged and what have you. But he only gets away with it, if Congress or the Courts or both goes along with it. That's the only means that doesn't require murdering people. All the other methods will require force. Including the "it's all rigged". California can have their midterm election, certify it, and send their members of Congress to DC. If Trump stops them, they can sue to be rightfully seated. That requires the Courts to go along with it. If the Courts allow them in, but the Speaker won't acknowledge them or grant them a vote, that's Congress going along with it.
  The only way the Executive alone prevents a member of Congress from taking their duly elected seat is shooting them in the head. That's it, that's the only means. All the other methods require some other ⅓ of our Government being cool with the heist.
  
  You mean it would be a crime to do that? SCOTUS has spoken on that already.

34 comments