The Trump-inflicted 'national security dilemma' Biden has the power to stop: ex-FBI official



Former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, Frank Figliuzzi, on Wednesday laid out the "real national security dilemma" President-Elect Donald Trump will cause by making the FBI "his own personal police department."

Speaking to Figliuzzi, MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace said, "The New York Times reports that while after weeks of delay the Trump transition team has finally signed a transition agreement," 'Trump's team has so far refused to sign an agreement with the Justice Department to allow the FBI to do security clearances for transition members.'"

She also noted that "Trump has turned down federal funding for his transition, which then allows him to raise unlimited private funds, including from foreign nationals, with zero requirement to disclose where they come from. Senator Elizabeth Warren slammed the announcement on social media writing, "This announcement fails to answer key questions about national security threats and FBI vetting of nominees, and increases concerns about corruption. There appear to be serious gaps between the Trump transition's ethics agreements and the letter of the law."

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Figliuzzi replied, "This may be the first tangible action item we can point to that says Trump intends to turn the FBI into his own personal police department. Why am I saying this? There is reporting by Hugo Lowell in The Guardian that says that the FBI will only do this background investigations for Trump after Trump takes over the FBI. So Trump's intention, according to people around him is, yeah, he'll do background investigations with the FBI, but only once he takes control — once he names a deputy director and director."

The ex-FBI official continued, "Rumors, of course, have been out there that Kash Patel is up for at least deputy director. This creates a real national security dilemma because what's going to happen, according to this Guardian article, is he's gonna give blanket security clearances on day one to his nominees without benefit of the FBI background investigations having already been done. And then, he'll task the FBI, and then the FBI will weigh in."

"But who's in charge of the FBI?" Figliuzzi asked. "Will Trump get a full report? Will he dictate the outcome of the report? If you think that is far- fetched, we need only look back at Justice Kavanaugh's reinvestigation, where Trump literally dictated who they could interview. What they could focus on, and what they could do with the myriad of allegations flowing into the tip line. So, we're beginning to see the plan here. He will give senators on the judiciary committee an out by saying, 'Oh, yeah, I will give you an FBI investigation but of course it will be my FBI, and my background investigation that I will hand you.' Hopefully Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will balk at that, and, by the way, I would assert as I did in MSNBC Daily column last week, that President Biden has the authority right now to step in and say, 'I see a national security issue. I have the authority to order the FBI to do background investigations on nominees, right now.'"

Watch the video below or at this link.

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from Alternet.org https://ift.tt/SQJYdAR
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