US senator Elizabeth Warren says transition agreement between Trump team and White House fails to answer key questions about FBI vetting and security

The MOU was supposed to be signed weeks ago, before the election. Trump has already indicated he will sidestep standard transition processes, including, The Guardian has reported, by issuing security clearances to appointees without requiring FBI background checks.

In refusing to sign a transition agreement with the DOJ regarding FBI background checks, the incoming Trump administration stands to forgo access to classified information from Biden administration officials. Lawmakers have already raised concerns about key Trump appointees avoiding the standard security clearance process – which will likely arise during senate confirmation hearings early next year.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the incoming Trump and outgoing Biden administrations outlining some terms of the transfer of power departs from the norm in a few key ways, which is raising eyebrows on Washington.

The Trump team said the transition will be privately funded and will not utilize “government buildings or technology [...] and will operate as a self-sufficient organization.”

Susie Wiles, Trump’s incoming chief of staff said the transition team “has an existing ethics plan”, which she said would be uploaded to the General Services Administration website.

Warren called Trump’s use of private funds “nothing more than a ploy for well-connected Trump insiders to line their pockets while pretending to save taxpayers money.” She expressed “concerns of corruption”.

There is a fresh flurry of Trump appointments. Among those announced last night were John Phelan, an investor and Trump campaign donor, as his pick for secretary of the Navy, and Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University health researcher who opposed Covid-19 lockdowns, to head the National Institutes of Health.