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President-elect Donald Trump has missed a deadline to file an ethics pledge promising to avoid conflicts of interest and other ethical issues, a delay that could hinder his transition to the White House, the New York Times reported.
Trump’s transition team missed the Oct. 1 deadline to submit the ethics plan required by the Presidential Transition Act, the report said.
His team, set up in August, has also refused to participate in the normal handover process that begins months before elections, and has ignored deadlines for signing agreements governing the process.
The delay will prevent the transition team from participating in national security briefings or gaining access to federal agencies needed to take control of the government on Inauguration Day in January. January 20, 2025, the report said.
“While transition planning is a private activity, it is closely tied to the activities of our government and the management of public resources,” said Max Stier, the president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group that provides resources to candidates through the Center for Presidential Transition, the New York Times reported.
“Avoiding conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts of interest is critical to that task,” he said.
The Presidential Transition Act was amended in 2019 to require candidates to post an ethics plan before the election that includes “information on how eligible presidential candidates will address their own conflicts of interest during a presidential term,” the report said.
The changes were prompted by ethical concerns during Trump’s first administration.
The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington identified 3,400 conflicts of interest related to Trump during his first term.