Newsletter: The Senate’s Confirmation Hearing Blitz

As the Senate held a dozen confirmation hearings for Donald Trump’s cabinet picks this week, the American people still deserve a thorough vetting of the people selected to fill key administration positions.

Inquiriespress@americanoversight.org

Some nominees have not yet had complete FBI background checks, raising concerns about a confirmation process potentially aimed at avoiding scrutiny of some of the more controversial — and dangerous — choices of a president who has prized loyalty and power above qualifications and commitment to democratic ideals. In some cases where nominees’ background checks have been completed, the Trump transition team has reportedly refused to provide the FBI’s reports to rank-and-file senators who are part of the confirmation process.

Holding accountable the leaders who will help shape and implement policies related to everything from national security to health care requires full transparency. That’s why we recently sued the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for records that could shed light on any efforts by Trump’s FBI director nominee, Kash Patel — whose hearing has not yet been scheduled — to politicize the intelligence agency during the first Trump administration.

Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Defense, faced questions Tuesday about sexual assault and misconduct allegations made against him, and about his prior comments suggesting that women should not serve in combat. Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that the FBI had failed to interview a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017 during its background investigation of Hegseth.
A member of the Trump transition reportedly sat in on the FBI briefing on Hegseth’s background check report, but senators were not given a copy of the file.
Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, who served as a personal lawyer for Trump during his first impeachment trial, was questioned Wednesday about the potential weaponization of the Justice Department during the upcoming administration. She refused to say that Trump lost the 2020 election.

During the Wednesday hearing for Russ Vought, a Project 2025 architect and Trump’s pick to once again lead the Office of Management and Budget, Vought claimed the president has the ability to withhold spending authorized by Congress.

Our investigation of Trump’s corrupt withholding or aid for Ukraine in 2019 unearthed emails from Vought and Michael Duffey, then OMB’s associate director for national security. Both officials were key players in the aid withholding.
Vought has also reportedly crafted plans to defund the EPA and to deploy the military against protesters.

Last year, we amended our ongoing Schedule F lawsuit — for records related to Trump’s 2020 executive order aimed at turning the federal workforce into a bureaucracy of loyalists — to also seek records from OMB.
You can read here about public records related to Vought that we’ve obtained, including communications about his plans for Schedule F conversions.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, took place Friday morning. If confirmed, Noem would lead the department responsible for carrying out Trump’s immigration detention and mass deportation plans.

Noem faced criticism as governor for spending millions of dollars deploying South Dakota’s National Guard to the border but refusing to deploy the Guard after historic flooding in the state, as the New York Times reported this week.
Records related to Noem’s decision to deploy the Guard to the border in 2021 only came to light in 2023, after Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington requested and sued for the documents. The records CREW obtained along with additional reporting show that Noem spent $2.7 million on the deployment, about $1.7 million of which came from South Dakota’s Emergency and Disaster Fund.
We previously obtained records that shed light on Noem’s use of taxpayer dollars to renovate the governor’s mansion, including documents that showed Noem’s office spent about $60,000 between January 2019 and September 2021 decor and furnishings for her office and home.

(Still) Seeking Transparency from the Georgia State Election Board

As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported this week, two members of the Georgia State Election Board have repeatedly refused to search their personal email accounts for public records we requested, including communications related to election administration, which we allege in a lawsuit we filed in October.

Our lawsuit against the board and one of its members, Janice Johnston, alleges that certain SEB members have systematically obstructed records requests by using private email and refusing to adequately search for or produce records.

The SEB’s three Trump-allied members made a series of anti-democratic moves in the lead-up to last year’s election, including allowing local election officials the discretion to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into the election before certifying results.

In July, they convened an illegal meeting to consider and advance two problematic rule changes without providing adequate notice or meeting quorum. The rules were withdrawn after we filed an Open Meetings Act lawsuit, and later reintroduced at a properly noticed meeting.
Johnston’s refusal to turn over documents or provide staff access to her private email, with which she conducts SEB business, undermines the people’s right to know about the actions, influences, and decisions of public officials.

On the Records

Trump advisers reportedly have been trying to identify a disease that would allow them to close the border under Title 42. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the Trump administration invoked Title 42 to expel asylum-seekers at the border during the pandemic.

We previously obtained emails showing that Stephen Miller — now Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy — spearheaded the 2020 effort to invoke Title 42, holding meetings about the policy with a small, senior circle of interagency officials.

Other records we previously obtained show Miller and his allies in the first Trump administration were frequently in contact with members of anti-immigrant extremist groups, discussing efforts to punish sanctuary cities or to promote false narratives about immigrants as criminals.

We also uncovered records regarding Miller’s involvement in the development and execution of some of the Trump administration’s other harsh immigration restrictions, including family separation and the Muslim travel ban.
A timeline we previously published details Miller’s influence on anti-immigrant policies throughout the first Trump administration.

Newsletter: The Senate’s Confirmation Hearing Blitz

On the Records

Other Stories We’re Following