GOP senators deride idea of replacing FBI background checks for Trump nominees

Source: The Hill

11/19/24 6:00 AM ET


Senate Republicans are rejecting a proposal floated by some advisers to President-elect Trump to take the job of conducting background checks for high-level nominees away from the FBI and give it to private investigators. Doing so could make it easier for some nominees to win Senate confirmation, but GOP senators say the FBI should retain its leading role in conducting background checks. They argue its agents have access to criminal information that private investigators simply can’t match.

And while many Trump allies don’t trust the FBI, many GOP senators think the agency sets the gold standard for professionalism and credibility in law enforcement. The FBI also leads the nation’s domestic counterespionage efforts, serving as the lead agency for investigating and preventing foreign intelligence gathering activities in the United States.

Republican senators think that role puts it in a good position to vet nominees who would have access to the nation’s most sensitive secrets. “The FBI should do the background checks, in my judgement,” said Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), who serves as the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense and as a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, argued that the FBI has access to information gathered by law enforcement on the federal, state and local levels that private firms don’t. “If you wanted to supplement it with a private firm, I’d say OK. But the FBI does have access to information that probably a private firm wouldn’t have, even a really good savvy one,” he said.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4996945-senate-republicans-reject-private-investigators/