Trump stops FBI involvement in top staffers' background checks, sends job to Pentagon

Considering the myriad abuses in which FBI personnel were involved during the last presidential administration, it should come as no surprise that the current commander in chief is treading carefully when it comes to certain of its functions.

As such, the Trump White House has instructed the FBI to stop the process of conducting background checks for a cadre of top administration staffers, sending the work to the Pentagon instead, as ABC News reports.

White House says no

According to the outlet, the directive from the White House was issued last month after FBI personnel had already conducted some interviews with incoming administrative staffers as part of a standard background check.

However, after administration officials deemed the procedures to be excessively intrusive, the FBI was ordered to stand down from the task.

Traditionally, an FBI-conducted background check includes the aforementioned interviews as well as scrutiny of job histories, marital status, past and present foreign contacts, finances, and any other matters that could give rise to a security risk, as NPR notes.

Rather than proceeding along the usual course, the White House chose to send the job of conducting these checks to the Defense Department, a move that one former FBI official suggested to ABC News was “highly unusual.”

The FBI's new director, Kash Patel, did not register his opposition to the switch, declaring in a statement, “The FBI is relentlessly focused on our mission to rebuild trust, restore law and order, and let good agents be good agents -- and we have full confidence DOD can address any needs in the clearance process.”

Lingering distrust clouds process

As ABC News notes, Trump himself and many in his administration harbor lingering skepticism about many -- but certainly not all -- FBI employees, some of whom they believe were involved in the weaponization of the bureau against then-President Joe Biden's political adversaries.

In light of that distrust, the president swifty moved to oust individuals within the FBI and broader DOJ who had roles in special counsel Jack Smith's criminal cases against him.

The concerns Trump had about FBI and DOJ involvement in conducting background checks of administration nominees and appointees was evidenced by the then-transition team's delay in executing what is considered a standard agreement permitting those probes to move forward ahead of Inauguration Day, something the Associated Press reported in December.

Despite the change in protocol for numerous top Trump staffers, ABC News noted that the FBI is still involved in processing background investigations for any positions requiring Senate approval, and whether there will be any further fallout from the administration's decision, only time will tell.