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You're Hired: Tracking the Trump Administration Transition - January 5, 2017

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President Donald Trump
Vice President Mike Pence
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This is the January 5, 2017, edition of an email sent from November 2016 to September 2017 that covered Donald Trump's presidential transition, cabinet appointees, and the different policy positions of those individuals who may have had an effect on the new administration. Previous editions of "You're Hired" can be found here.

Nominations

Now that it’s January, we’re moving closer not only to Trump’s inauguration on the 20th but also to the formal beginnings of the Senate confirmation processes for his cabinet picks and other high-level appointments. Below we list the dates of which we are aware. In these hearings, the committees usually ask the nominees about their policy stances and scrutinize their background. Before the hearings take place, the committees often request that the nominees respond to questionnaires and submit information on their personal finances. If the committee chooses to take action on the nominee’s status, it can report the nomination favorably, unfavorably, or without recommendation. This report is then put on the executive calendar for consideration on the Senate floor, where a majority vote is required to confirm a nominee. Read more about the confirmation process here.

January 10-11

January 11

Federal Courts

You might recall that in December we wrote about the open seat on the Supreme Court and the list of 21 names from which Trump has said he intends to select a nominee. What we didn’t tell you was that the SCOTUS seat is one of more than a hundred federal judicial vacancies that will require a presidential nomination after Trump takes office later this month. More specifically, a total of 121 federal judicial vacancies will be open by inauguration day on January 20. On top of this, an additional 13 judges have announced their intention to leave active judicial status between January 20 and December 31, 2017, according to the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts. This means that Trump will have the opportunity to fill roughly 12 percent of federal judicial seats in the U.S. Read more about these vacancies and the process for filling them here.

Russia and Cybersecurity

Today, U.S. intelligence officials testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee about potential cybersecurity threats posed by the Russian government. The hearing discussed reports that Russia sought to use cyber-attacks to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. The hacking of emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee and to Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta was reportedly conducted by Russian actors connected to the Russian government. Russian officials have denied any involvement in the incidents. In statements in October and December 2016, U.S. intelligence officials said that the “Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations.” They added that the hacks were “intended to interfere with the U.S. election process” and “only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.” Last month, the Obama administration imposed new sanctions on the Russian government and expelled 35 Russian diplomats from the country. Intelligence officials are expected to release a full report on Russian cybersecurity threats next week and are scheduled to brief President-elect Trump tomorrow.

Trump has expressed skepticism of claims made by political opponents and by the U.S. intelligence community about Russian interference in the election. In the first general election debate in September 2016, for example, when Hillary Clinton said that Russia was behind the DNC email hacks, Trump responded, “She said Russia, Russia, Russia, maybe it was. Could also be China. Could also be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.” Earlier this week, after an intelligence briefing on Russian cybersecurity threats was pushed back to Friday, Trump tweeted, “The ‘Intelligence’ briefing on so-called ‘Russian hacking’ was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!” Also on Twitter, Trump quoted Julian Assange, whose website Wikileaks.com published hacked emails from the DNC and Podesta. Yesterday, Trump stated, “Julian Assange said ‘a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta’ - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!”

In light of the Senate hearing today, here are some of Trump’s past statements on cybersecurity-related issues:

  • Trump discussed cybersecurity at a campaign event in Virginia on October 3, 2016. Speaking before a crowd of veterans, he said, “Cyberattacks from foreign governments — especially China, Russia, North Korea, along with nonstate terrorist actors and organized criminal groups — constitute one of our most critical national security concerns. The scope of our cybersecurity problem is enormous. Our government, our businesses, our trade secrets and our citizens — most sensitive information — are all facing constant cyberattacks and reviews by the enemy.” Calling Cybersecurity “the warfare of the future,” he also suggested using it to combat terrorism: “We should turn cyberwarfare into one of our greatest weapons against the terrorists.”
  • On his campaign website, Trump listed a four-part plan for dealing with cybersecurity-related issues:
    • “Order an immediate review of all U.S. cyber defenses and vulnerabilities, including critical infrastructure, by a Cyber Review Team of individuals from the military, law enforcement, and the private sector.”
    • “Instruct the U.S. Department of Justice to create Joint Task Forces throughout the U.S. to coordinate Federal, State, and local law enforcement responses to cyber threats.”
    • “Order the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to provide recommendations for enhancing U.S. Cyber Command, with a focus on both offense and defense in the cyber domain.” (In a YouTube video from November 21, Trump mentioned that he would do this on his first day in office.)
    • “Develop the offensive cyber capabilities we need to deter attacks by both state and non-state actors and, if necessary, to respond appropriately.”
  • In the first debate of the general election in September 2016, Trump said, “We came in with the Internet, we came up with the Internet, and I think Secretary Clinton and myself would agree very much, when you look at what ISIS is doing with the Internet, they're beating us at our own game. ISIS. So we have to get very, very tough on cyber and cyber warfare. It is -- it is a huge problem. I have a son. He's 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it's unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it's hardly doable. But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing. But that's true throughout our whole governmental society. We have so many things that we have to do better … and certainly cyber is one of them.”
  • In July 2016, Trump called on Russia to locate emails from Clinton's tenure as secretary of state. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press," he said. He later said that he was being sarcastic in his remarks.

See also

v • e
President Donald Trump's policies (first term)
OverviewsUS-WhiteHouse-Logo.svg
Domestic policy
Economic affairs and regulations
Foreign affairs and national security
Trump's second term overviews


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