Yes, we know Donald Trump plans to skip public background checks on his nominees and we know he’ll try to appoint them no matter what is found. We also know, especially with potential Attorney General Matt Gaetz, there is almost certainly a lot to be found.
But that doesn’t mean everything has to remain hidden about Trump’s picks for vitally important institutions.
MSNBC’s Frank Figliuzzi made an excellent case for President Biden to have the FBI conduct background checks now. Figliuzzi is no bleedhing-heart liberal but a lawyer with a long history of espionage investigations at the FBI. He laid out the legal justification for Biden to have background checks conducted on the Trump picks, even if they don’t cooperate. He also laid out a legal case for the Senate Judiciary Committee to do the same, not just for Gaetz but also Trump’s pick to head the FBI and “all other DOJ nominees and non-judicial nominees.”
More importantly, Figliuzzi makes the moral and political case.
More from his MSNBC column:
You’d be right to ask, “What’s the point?” After all, Trump is unlikely to read, let alone act upon, any derogatory information developed in FBI reports. The point would be to force Trump’s hand. Drop the reports on his desk and let him go forward with nominees who potentially are either found through investigation to be unqualified, at risk of compromise, or even a national security threat. Let Trump order White House security clearance adjudicators or his hand-picked agency heads to grant security clearances to seemingly unqualified candidates. Let the Senate affirm nominees after they’ve read details about the kind of people who may lead the DOJ or serve as the director of national intelligence.
…
Biden should be neither ashamed nor afraid to thoroughly investigate Trump’s picks, given the signs that Trump may not. Through executive order, he should mandate that the FBI conduct background investigations on Trump’s picks and instruct the FBI to begin the process now. The U.S. Senate should use its power to request the same of the FBI.
Yep, even if we can’t stop the confirmations, the information can serve as an early shot over the bow that a) we are not going to allow Trump and Project 2025 to wreck our government without a fight and b) we can use the information as proof that Trump and his enablers are looking out only for themselves and the unpopular Project 2025 agenda, not regular Americans.
Personally, I think there’s only pair of stones between President Biden and Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin – and they belong to Biden. But maybe even Durbin could wake up, smell the fascist coffee and bring himself to act.
