Elizabeth Warren says Trump is 'breaking the law' by not signing GSA ethics agreement

It is common practice for an incoming presidential administration to sign an ethics agreement with the General Services Administration as they begin their transition to power in the White House. President-elect Donald Trump, however, who served in the White House just four years ago, has not signed one and Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling foul.

"Donald Trump and his transition team are already breaking the law," the Massachusetts senator posted. I would know because I wrote the law. Incoming presidents are required to prevent conflicts of interest and sign an ethics agreement. This is what illegal corruption looks like."

Trump and his team are meant to submit an ethics plan to the GSA stating outright that any conflicts of interest will be avoided. That legally required ethics pledge was supposed to be submitted by October 1. The transition team has drafted a private ethics code for staff regarding conflicts of interest, but apparently those documents do not discuss safeguards for any potential conflicts of interest for Trump himself or how he would address those should they arise during his second term in office.

The New York Times notes that the campaign, and now incoming administration, "has missed multiple deadlines for signing required agreements governing the process." Trump's team has not been party to national security briefings either. For Trump's part, he had said that he did not want to be part of those briefings over concerns that the information would be leaked and his team would be accused of leaking it.

President Joe Biden's chief of staff, per press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, has made overtures to the Trump team about the transition documents and learned that they "say they have an intent" to sign on to the agreements, though they did not indicate when that would be. Transition co-chairs Linda McMahon and Howard Lutnick said that "all transition staff have signed a robust ethics pledge as a requirement of their participation." 

That pledge has not been made public, although in 2019, Congress required that all candidates must "create and publicly post" their ethics plans in order to ensure that the public, and lawmakers, know "how eligible presidential candidates will address their own conflicts of interest during a presidential term."

The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 is what governs the presidential transition process. At the time, Congress stated their reasons for drafting the act, saying "Any disruption occasioned by the transfer of the executive power could produce results detrimental to the safety and well-being of the United States and its people." Over the years, the Act has been amended and updated. In short, "the law requires the General Services Administration to provide office space and other core support services to presidents-elect and vice presidents-elect, as well as pre-election space and support to eligible candidates. The Act also requires the White House and agencies to begin transition planning well before a presidential election, benefitting both first and second term administrations."

The Act states that "Not later than October 1, the Executive Office of the President, acting through the Federal Transition Coordinator, negotiates memorandums of understanding with transition teams regarding conditions of access to agencies, including agreement by transition teams to implement and make public their ethics plans."