Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., accused President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team of "already breaking the law" in light of a weekend report that the Republican has yet to sign ethics pledges that are part of the transition agreements with the Biden administration.
CNN reported Saturday that the ethics agreement, which is required by law under the Presidential Transition Act, an updated version of which was signed into law by Trump in 2020, has yet to be signed. Trump and every member of his transition team is required to sign it, according to the report.
"Donald Trump and his transition team are already breaking the law. I would know because I wrote the law," Warren said in a post to X on Monday. "Incoming presidents are required to prevent conflicts of interest and sign an ethics agreement. This is what illegal corruption looks like."
Trump and his team haven't yet received — and won't — transition briefings until the agreements are signed, according to CNN, which added that the holdup is over the mandatory agreement on ethics issues. CNN reported that details between Trump's transition team and the Biden administration were still getting worked out.
A Trump adviser told CNN that Trump plans to sign the ethics pledge, saying the team is more focused on assembling Trump's Cabinet and building out his administration. Further, the adviser dismissed two deadlines that passed — Sept. 1 and Oct. 1 — without getting signed as "not at all a concern."
However, left-leaning organizations and one Democrat lawmaker sounded the alarm on the missed deadlines and briefings as a potential threat to national security.
In an Oct. 23 letter to Trump and now Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, accused them of refusing to "commit to a smooth transition" by missing the deadline on the Memorandum of Understanding [MOU] with the General Services Administration.
"Without these MOUs in place, federal agencies are unlikely to be able to securely and effectively communicate with your staff, which will endanger 'the orderly transfer of the executive power' and threaten our national security. I strongly urge you to expeditiously sign both MOUs and submit your ethics plan," Raskin wrote.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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