(The Hill) – Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said on Monday that President elect-Trump “and his transition team are already breaking” a law on presidential transition.
“Donald Trump and his transition team are already breaking the law,” Warren said in a post on the social platform X. “I would know because I wrote the law. Incoming presidents are required to prevent conflicts of interest and sign an ethics agreement.”
“This is what illegal corruption looks like,” she added.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) speaks to reporters as she arrives to the Capitol for a procedural vote regarding a judicial nomination on Wednesday, September 11, 2024. (Greg Nash/The Hill)
Warren was responding to a report from CNN on Saturday that said a conflict of interest pledge included in the Presidential Transition Act was, in part, keeping multiple transition agreements from being submitted by president-elect’s team to the Biden administration.
The Presidential Transition Act instructs candidates from major parties to join in memorandums of understanding (MOU) with the current president as well as the General Services Administration (GSA) so staff may get their hands on relevant resources like facilities, documents, executive branch employees and national security information in the period between the election and the inauguration. Those agreements also feature an ethics plan.
Last month, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), raised concerns in a letter to Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance over their campaign’s failure to go into presidential transition agreements with the federal government. Raskin warned that the hold up could have an unfavorable impact on the transfer of power in the upcoming year.
“Breaking the precedent set by every other presidential candidate since 2010, you have rejected these resources and refused to commit to a smooth transition,” Raskin wrote.
“Your actions depart from well-established norms of the federal government and demonstrate a spectacular disregard for the successful continuation of the essential institutions of American democratic government,” he added.
The Hill has reached out to a spokesperson for Trump, the White House and the GSA for comment.
