President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has signed an agreement to allow the Justice Department to conduct background checks on his nominees and appointees after a weeks-long delay.
Actually FBI background checks of potential appointees require voluntary cooperation of the applicant. The potential appointee has to fill out a form granting permission, and providing basic information to start (financial, personal, employment, affiliations, etc).
It isn’t clear from the stories on this whether Trump and his team will be requiring appointees to consent to a FBI evaluation, or what the consequences would be if they don’t. (Normally the response would be “thank you for your interest, but without this background check you can’t be named to this position”
Of course, the Senate can order their own background check from the FBI.
I wouldn’t call it “basic” information. The process of getting a clearance is a real pain in the ass.
I needed a public trust clearance once (the lowest level of clearance) and even that required 10 years history of addresses, employment, multiple references, a voice stress analysis, a psychological exam, a list of any foreign nationals I was friends with, financial documents, proof of education, travel history, etc. They call your references and ask for more references, then they call them and ask for more. They do as much digging as they possibly can to try to find anything wrong with you. My husband needed a TS/SCI and that was, of course, even worse.
They should have to go through all of that and it shouldn’t be allowed to be bypassed, but it’s not basic.
Actually FBI background checks of potential appointees require voluntary cooperation of the applicant. The potential appointee has to fill out a form granting permission, and providing basic information to start (financial, personal, employment, affiliations, etc).
It isn’t clear from the stories on this whether Trump and his team will be requiring appointees to consent to a FBI evaluation, or what the consequences would be if they don’t. (Normally the response would be “thank you for your interest, but without this background check you can’t be named to this position”
Of course, the Senate can order their own background check from the FBI.
Sure and cops can’t lie about being a cop.
Definitely real rules.
I wouldn’t call it “basic” information. The process of getting a clearance is a real pain in the ass.
I needed a public trust clearance once (the lowest level of clearance) and even that required 10 years history of addresses, employment, multiple references, a voice stress analysis, a psychological exam, a list of any foreign nationals I was friends with, financial documents, proof of education, travel history, etc. They call your references and ask for more references, then they call them and ask for more. They do as much digging as they possibly can to try to find anything wrong with you. My husband needed a TS/SCI and that was, of course, even worse.
They should have to go through all of that and it shouldn’t be allowed to be bypassed, but it’s not basic.