Frank Figliuzzi: FBI Will ‘Move Hell and Earth’ to Get the Background Check Done Before Inauguration Day

EXCERPT:

FIGLIUZZI: “Yeah, great question. So this is a crack we’re seeing in the armor of the Trump transition team, this agreement to ostensibly allow FBI background investigations when he said he wasn’t going to do it. I think that’s an important revelation that the Senate is having some impact here. But hope and crossing your fingers isn’t a plan for national security. Hoping that the Senate does the right thing, hoping the Judiciary Committee wants to preserve its advice and consent powers, that’s not doing it for me. So, yes, I think the FBI needs to go into high gear. The answer as to how fast backgrounds can get done is very fast. January 20th is a realistic deadline. I’ve been through it as a street agent and I’ve been through it as an assistant director. We will move hell and earth to absolutely get the background done. Every agent in a field office, if — you know, as we used to say, oh no, they nominated somebody from my field office territory, everything comes to a stop and hundreds of interviews are done regarding that nominee. And existing files, and this may become important with regards to Tulsi Gabbard, existing files are scrubbed throughout the intelligence community. And if you’re traveling to Damascus and you’re meeting with Bashar al-Assad, there’s got to be some intelligence community files on that and that will be inserted into the background report.”