Trump team signs a key transition agreement with Biden White House

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The White House, as seen on Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024. / AFP

After a significant delay, the Trump transition team has signed a key agreement with the Biden White House to ease the transfer of power.

"This engagement allows our intended cabinet nominees to begin critical preparations, including the deployment of landing teams to every department and agency, and complete the orderly transition of power," Susie Wiles, chief of staff to President-elect Donald Trump, said in a statement on Tuesday.

The memorandum of understanding was supposed to have been signed by Oct. 1 — along with a second MOU with the General Services Administration (GSA) that would provide funding, office space and technology. The deadline and process is set out in a law called the Presidential Transition Act.

The transition team said it has ruled out signing the GSA agreement, saying it would use "an existing ethics plan" for its team, and would post it on the GSA website.

"The transition already has existing security and information protections built in, which means we will not require additional government and bureaucratic oversight," the Trump transition team said in a statement, noting it would disclose its donors publicly.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said the announcement did not address her concerns about the transition -- including the Trump team's use of private donors to pay for it. "There appear to be serious gaps between the Trump transition's ethics agreement and the letter of the law," Warren said in a statement.

Now that the MOU is signed, authorized members of the Trump transition team can have access to agency and White House employees, facilities and information because it has "agreed to important safeguards to protect non-public information and prevent conflicts of interest, including who has access to the information and how the information is shared," said Saloni Sharma, a spokeswoman for the White House.

While the White House would have preferred that the Trump transition team sign the GSA agreement, it decided that a disruption in the transfer of power would be more risky.

A third agreement, with the Department of Justice, is required for FBI background checks and security clearances. That agreement has not yet been signed. Those background checks are traditionally required by the Senate during the confirmation process, along with an ethics agreement with the Office of Government Ethics, and responses to a detailed questionnaire.