Memo prepared by ex-president’s team urges him to grant security clearances without government vetting if elected

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Donald Trump could skip FBI background checks to grant immediate security clearance to numerous appointees who might otherwise fail to pass traditional vetting hurdles, according to a memorandum prepared by his closest advisers.

A memo being promoted by Boris Epshteyn, a senior legal adviser to the former president, is urging him to dispense with the time-honoured convention – originally designed to protect national security – as an apparent means of packing a new administration with loyalists subordinate to him rather than the US government in general.

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