U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz is photographed inside the Rayburn House Office Building Feb. 27, 2019.  (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he intends to nominate U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz as the next attorney general of the United States, an unexpected pick as the Florida Republican remains the subject of a congressional ethics investigation for alleged sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and accepting improper gifts.

House Speaker Mike Johnson announced on Wednesday night at a GOP press conference following leadership elections that Gaetz has already submitted a letter of resignation from the House.

“I think out of deference to us, he issued his resignation letter effective immediately of Congress,” Johnson said. “That caught us by surprise a little bit, but I asked him what the reasoning was, and he said, ‘Well, you can’t have too many absences.’”

Florida state law, Johnson said, provides an eight-week time frame for the governor to fill a vacancy. He’s already placed a call to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is in Italy, to ask him to begin that timeline.

“And if we start the clock now, if you do the math, we may be able to fill that seat as early as January 3, when we take the new oath of office for the new Congress,” Johnson said.  “So Matt would have done us a great service by making that decision, as he did on the fly. And so we’re grateful for that.”

The position of attorney general requires U.S. Senate approval, and if confirmed, the four-term congressman and Trump ally would lead the massive U.S. Justice Department that oversees more than 40 component organizations and 115,000 employees, according to the department.

The announcement comes as U.S. special counsel Jack Smith winds down two federal investigations of Trump — one, alleging Trump improperly stored classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office, and the other stemming from his alleged scheme to subvert the 2020 presidential election. Justice Department memos from 1973 and 2000 concluded that criminally prosecuting a sitting president would impair the leader’s capacity to carry out the office’s functions.

Trump first announced his decision to choose Gaetz on social media, describing the congressman as “a deeply gifted and tenacious attorney, trained at the William & Mary College of Law, who has distinguished himself in Congress through his focus on achieving desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice.”

Revealing the information on Truth Social roughly 10 minutes before his transition team sent an official statement, the president-elect wrote that Gaetz “will root out the systemic corruption at DOJ, and return the Department to its true mission of fighting Crime, and upholding our Democracy and Constitution. We must have Honesty, Integrity, and Transparency at DOJ. Under Matt’s leadership, all Americans will be proud of the Department of Justice once again.” Trump routinely writes on social media in mixed capitalization.

Gaetz quickly published on the social media platform X that, “It will be an honor to serve as President Trump’s Attorney General!”

Ethics probe

The House Committee on Ethics revealed in June that it would continue pursuing allegations in its ongoing investigation of Gaetz, including the possibility the lawmaker may have “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”

Gaetz has “categorically denied all of the allegations before the Committee,” according to the committee’s June update on the matter.

The committee’s probe began in April 2021 and originally included allegations that the lawmaker “shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity.” The committee announced in June that it was no longer pursuing those specific accusations.

As of June, the panel had spoken with more than a dozen witnesses, issued 25 subpoenas, and reviewed thousands of pages of documents regarding the Gaetz probe.

Rep. Michael Guest, chair of the House Ethics Committee, told reporters Wednesday that if Gaetz is confirmed by the Senate as attorney general, his committee will no longer have jurisdiction over the probe.

“Once we lose jurisdiction, there would not be a report that would be issued,” said Guest, a Mississippi Republican elected to Congress in 2019. “That’s not unique to this case, we have that every new Congress, where there are members who are under ethics investigation, who either choose not to run again, in some instances, or they resign or they lose reelection.”

“We’re not going to rush this investigation because of the appointment. And so we’re going to again follow the rules and the procedures that we set in place.”

The ethics investigation is expected to wrap up following Gaetz’s resignation, though Punchbowl News reported that the panel was set to release a “highly damaging” report in the days ahead

Lawmakers taken aback

Senators on Capitol Hill, who will have to vet and possibly vote to confirm Gaetz, expressed surprise at Trump’s announcement.

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said that she expected to consider another option at some point.

“I don’t think he’s a serious nomination for the attorney general,” Murkowski said. “We need to have a serious attorney general and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to consider somebody that is serious.”

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she was shocked when she heard the news. She said that she and her colleagues will want to question Gaetz.

“Obviously, the president has the right to nominate whomever he wishes. But I’m certain that there will be a lot of questions,” Collins, a Republican, said.

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said he doesn’t know Gaetz “other than his public persona,” but said Gaetz will face questions and possibly challenges getting the votes needed for Senate confirmation.

“I’m sure we’ll have a lot of questions, and I’m sure all that stuff will come out,” Cornyn said. “And then it’s a question of, can he get 51 votes?”

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said that Republicans were the ones to question about whether they’d support Gaetz’s nomination, since Democrats were unlikely to do so.

“Talk to my colleagues, like, to see who’s gonna vote for, like, a jerk-off like that,” Fetterman said.

Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said Gaetz “has his work cut out for him,” and that it will be up to the Judiciary Committee to decide whether to confirm him to the post.

Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, who Trump on Wednesday nominated as secretary of State, said that he was supportive of the president-elect’s pick.

“I’ve known Matt for a long time, I think he would do a good job,” Rubio said, adding that he wouldn’t comment further about the recent ethics complaints against Gaetz.

Democrats who sit on the Judiciary Committee that would be tasked with holding a nomination hearing for Gaetz, such as Cory Booker of New Jersey and Jon Ossoff of Georgia, declined to comment on the news.

“I’m literally just walking out of a meeting and hearing this,” Booker said. “Give me a minute.”

Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson said he honestly doesn’t “know (Gaetz) that well or know his professional qualifications.”

“I know of his skill in questioning witnesses in the House,” Johnson said. “I really don’t know his legal background that much. I’ve never really spent much time with him, other than a couple times in different meetings, so I just don’t know him that well.”

Rep. Jim Himes, ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, issued a strong rebuke of Trump’s choice of Gaetz for the position.

“The Attorney General of the United States must have strong judgement, moral character, and a deep respect for the law. As almost all members of Congress know, Matt Gaetz has none of those things. What he does have is unconditional loyalty to Donald Trump and a willingness to weaponize the government against his political allies— an affinity that he and the president-elect share,” Himes, a Connecticut Democrat, said in a statement.

Ariana Figueroa and Shauneen Miranda contributed to this report. 

President Joe Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House on Nov. 13, 2024 in Washington, D.C. Biden continued the tradition of inviting the newly elected president to meet at the White House after Trump won the presidential election on Nov. 5. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden welcomed President-elect Donald Trump to the White House Wednesday, a tradition between incoming and outgoing American leaders, though the courtesy was not extended to Biden after he won the 2020 election.

The pair met behind closed doors in the Oval Office for most of the meeting that lasted just under two hours. Biden’s Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and Trump’s incoming counterpart, Susie Wiles, joined the president and president-elect.

Biden had been seeking reelection against Trump until late July, when Biden dropped his bid. Vice President Kamala Harris lost the race to Trump after just over 100 days of campaigning as the Democratic nominee.

Harris did not attend the meeting, according to the White House.

In brief remarks before cameras, Biden congratulated his predecessor who will again take the oath of office in January as the nation’s 47th president.

“Well, Mr. President-elect, former president, Donald, congratulations,” Biden said, as Trump interjected with “Thank you very much, Joe.”

“And looking forward to having a, like I said, smooth transition, do everything we can to make sure you’re accommodated, what you need,” Biden continued. “And we’re gonna get a chance to talk about some of that today.”

Trump again thanked Biden and responded “And politics is tough. And it’s, many cases, not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today. And I appreciate it very much, a transition that’s so smooth, it’ll be as smooth as it can get. I very much appreciate that, Joe,” Trump said.

A ‘substantive’ conversation

First lady Jill Biden joined the president in greeting Trump and presented a handwritten letter of congratulations and offer for transition assistance addressed to incoming first lady Melania Trump, according to the White House.

The meeting got underway just after 11 a.m. Eastern, and the press was ushered out after the brief welcoming remarks and photo opportunity. Biden and Trump finished their private discussion at roughly 1 p.m. Eastern.

Neither addressed a large gathering of reporters and photographers outside afterward.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden and Trump had “a very good back and forth.”

“(Biden) wants you all to know that the president-elect was gracious, came with a detailed set of questions, it was, again, substantive” Jean-Pierre said at the daily press briefing.

Jean-Pierre declined to provide the meeting’s specifics but said “the length of the meeting tells you they had an in-depth conversation on an array of issues.”

Trump did not invite Biden to the White House following his 2020 presidential election win, nor did he attend his successor’s inauguration that occurred just 14 days after a mob of his supporters violently tried to stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s victory.

The president-elect’s transition team did not immediately respond to States Newsroom’s inquiries on why Trump did not invite Biden to the White House in 2020.

Musk, Ramaswamy to head new initiative

The president-elect continues to announce numerous Cabinet and staff positions, stacking his administration with staunch loyalists.

Late Tuesday, Trump announced he named billionaire Elon Musk and former presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy to what he describes as a new “Department of Government Efficiency,” or shortened to “DOGE,” also the name for a popular internet dog meme and cryptocurrency in the last decade.

Trump said the new entity would function outside of government.

“To drive this kind of drastic change, the Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before,” Trump said in a statement.

Musk was also present, sitting in the front row during Trump’s visit with House Republicans earlier Wednesday.

Also on Tuesday night, Trump announced Fox News host Pete Hegseth as his pick for secretary of Defense, a position that requires managing hundreds of billions in Pentagon spending.

Trump endorses Johnson

Trump joined House Republicans Wednesday morning before his meeting with Biden at the White House. At a hotel near the U.S. Capitol, Trump received a standing ovation from GOP lawmakers, according to congressional pool reports.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, introduced Trump, calling him a “singular figure in American history,” according to congressional pool reports. 

House Republicans are also planning to have their leadership elections late Wednesday, but it’s expected that Johnson will be selected to continue the role, although an official vote for the speaker’s gavel will take place in January.

At the meeting, Trump threw his support behind Johnson to continue in his role as House speaker, according to NBC News.

During the meeting, Trump touted GOP wins in keeping control of the lower chamber. Although Republicans are on track to hold their slim majority, The Associated Press, the news organization that States Newsroom relies upon for race calls based on decades of experience, has not called the House for Republicans though it might happen soon.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Republicans have 216 seats, just two short of the 218 seats needed for control. Democrats have 207 seats, with 12 races still to be called.

Trump also joked about wanting to run for another term in office — something that the U.S. Constitution prohibits, as presidents are limited to only serving two terms. 

“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you do something,” Trump told members, who laughed, according to pool reports.

Democrats ready to push back

Chair of the House Democratic Caucus Pete Aguilar said Wednesday that Democrats are ready to work with the incoming administration in a bipartisan manner, but are also prepared to push back on efforts to further restrict reproductive rights, such as a national abortion ban, and any changes to the Affordable Care Act.

“We’re clear-eyed about the challenge ahead of us,” Aguilar, Democrat of California, said.

He acknowledged the failure of Democrats to regain control of the House.

“I think it’s appropriate for the current caucus to reflect on what happened, to listen to listen to our constituents, to listen to American people, to listen to our members, to gather data, and then to chart a path forward,” he said.

Aguilar added that Democrats plan to look at voter data to understand the issues important to their voting bloc.

“I don’t want to have broad generalizations of any group or geographic or otherwise, without that data in front of me,” he said. “I think it’s very clear to us that for people with two jobs, the economy is, gas and groceries and rent. We’ll need to speak to those issues if we’re going to be the party that speaks to our community members and people working, everyday Americans, then we need to speak to those issues, and … that’s on us to communicate.”

President-elect Donald Trump, then the GOP nominee, speaks at the Detroit Economic Club on Oct. 10, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan.  (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Two days before a key meeting with President Joe Biden, President-elect Donald Trump has not yet signed the necessary paperwork to unlock resources for a smooth transfer of power from one presidential administration to another.

Trump’s transition spokesperson Brian Hughes told States Newsroom Monday that “The Trump-Vance transition lawyers continue to constructively engage with the Biden-Harris Administration lawyers regarding all agreements contemplated by the Presidential Transition Act.”

“We will update you once a decision is made,” Hughes said in a statement.

Biden will host Trump at the White House late Wednesday morning, according to his public schedule.

One of the agreements in question includes a memorandum of understanding between the Trump-Vance transition and the U.S. General Services Administration for office space, information technology services, and staff assistance, as outlined in the 2010 update to the Presidential Transition Act of 1963.

The services are available to the president-elect, and to major presidential candidates following nominating conventions, but come with financial disclosure requirements and a contribution cap of $5,000 on transition-related donations from any one person or organization.

The other is an MOU with the White House, negotiated by the incumbent and president-elect, to establish an ethics plan pertaining to members of the transition team and information sharing, including national security matters. The due date was Oct. 1.

‘Peaceful and orderly’ transition urged

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday that Chief of Staff Jeff Zients has reached out to the Trump-Vance transition team’s co-chairs Linda McMahon and Howard Lutnick, both major campaign donors.

“So we’re going to leave that line of communications open. We’re going to be helpful here. We want to have an effective, efficient transition of power,” Jean-Pierre said.

Biden said Thursday from the White House Rose Garden that a “peaceful and orderly transition” is what “the American people deserve.”

The transition memoranda are available online, and the public can view the agreements filed in September by Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee who ultimately lost to Trump.

Raskin calls on Trump to act

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, called on Trump’s campaign in October to complete the paperwork.

“Breaking the precedent set by every other presidential candidate since 2010, you have rejected these resources and refused to commit to a smooth transition,” Raskin wrote in an Oct. 23 letter.

The Maryland Democrat surmised in the letter that the Trump team’s paperwork delinquency “may be at least partially driven” by an attempt to skirt the financial disclosure and limit rules.

“With fewer than three weeks left until an election in which the American people will select a new President of the United States, I urge you to put the public’s interest in maintaining a properly functioning government above any personal financial or political interests you may perceive in boycotting the official transition law and process,” Raskin wrote.

In February 2021, the Biden-Harris administration filed a 1,021-page transition-related donation and expense disclosure.

President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he would nominate former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, a New York Republican, as EPA administrator. In this photo, Zeldin speaks during his election night party on June 28, 2022 in Baldwin, New York, after winning the GOP primary for New York governor. He lost in the general election. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump Monday said he will nominate former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York to serve as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Zeldin, also a former GOP candidate for New York governor, said on social media that it would be an honor to be appointed to Trump’s Cabinet. The Senate, which Republicans will control next year, will have to confirm Zeldin’s nomination.

Zeldin does not necessarily come from an environmental background. He’s an attorney and currently serves as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. While in Congress from 2015 to 2023, he served on the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and on the House Financial Services Committee.

“We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI,” Zeldin wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.”

In a statement, Trump said that Zeldin comes from a “strong legal background,” and “has been a true fighter for America First policies.”

Zeldin serves as a chair of America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank that is packed with former Trump officials.

“He will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet,” Trump said. “He will set new standards on environmental review and maintenance, that will allow the United States to grow in a healthy and well-structured way.”

During Zeldin’s run for New York governor in 2022, a man attacked him on stage, but was quickly apprehended and Zeldin was uninjured.  New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul won the race.

Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, joined by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, left, speaks at the Capitol on Sept. 29, 2021, in Washington, D.C.  Thune and Cornyn, along with Florida Sen. Rick Scott, are vying for the post of majority leader. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is making demands of the next Senate Republican leader ahead of a closed-door election this week, writing on social media that whoever is chosen should recess the chamber early next year so he can appoint whoever he wants without having to go through the confirmation process.

“Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner,” Trump wrote. “Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more. This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again.”

If the Senate were to recess for an extended period after Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, it would ensure Trump could freely make appointments to top-ranking positions in government, including the secretary of Defense and Treasury secretary, without needing the support of centrist GOP lawmakers. Senate Republicans are on track for a majority of 53 seats, with one race, in Arizona, still undecided.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Florida Sen. Rick Scott and South Dakota Sen. John Thune — who are competing for the majority leader post — all quickly got in line with social media posts of their own about what are called recess appointments.

“It is unacceptable for Senate Ds to blockade President  @realDonaldTrump’s cabinet appointments,” Cornyn wrote on social media. “If they do, we will stay in session, including weekends, until they relent. Additionally, the Constitution expressly confers the power on the President to make recess appointments.

“Article II, Section 2, Clause 3: The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.”

Thune wrote: “We must act quickly and decisively to get the president’s nominees in place as soon as possible, & all options are on the table to make that happen, including recess appointments. We cannot let Schumer and Senate Dems block the will of the American people.” Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, is the Senate majority leader.

Scott commented on Trump’s original post, saying that he agreed “100%”

“I will do whatever it takes to get your nominations through as quickly as possible,” Scott said.

Skipping over the Senate’s advice and consent power would likely mean no committee hearings for nominees named through recess appointments, preventing them from having to answer lawmakers’ questions about their experience and policy goals.

It would also prevent senators from having to take what might be difficult floor votes on possibly controversial Trump nominees.

Trump has just started to announce who he’s selecting for posts in his next administration, naming a “border czar,” ambassador to the United Nations and EPA administrator as of Monday afternoon. 

Supreme Court ruling

The Senate has avoided recessing for more than three days in the middle of a session for years, under both Republican and Democratic majorities.

Instead, when the Senate leaves Capitol Hill for weeks at a time, the chamber holds what’s known as a pro forma session every three days to prevent recess appointments. Those usually last just a few minutes and don’t typically include any legislative business. 

The pro forma sessions, in part, stem from a unanimous Supreme Court ruling in June 2014 that held a president could fill vacancies during a congressional recess if it lasted more than 10 days.

“In light of historical practice, a recess of more than 3 days but less than 10 days is presumptively too short to fall within the Clause,” the justices wrote in National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning. 

That case began after then-President Barack Obama made three appointments to the National Labor Relations Board in 2012, even though the Democratic-controlled Senate was holding pro forma sessions every few days.

Opposition to Obama recess appointments

Republicans in Congress, including Thune and Cornyn, praised the Supreme Court’s decision at the time, sharply criticizing Obama for having tried to get around the Senate.

Thune released a written statement, saying the Supreme Court had blocked Obama from attempting “to violate the separation of powers.”

“When the president couldn’t get his appointments through the Senate, he decided to ignore the law and attempt an end run around Congress,” Thune wrote. “I am pleased that the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the president’s attempt to circumvent the Constitution. Today’s decision reaffirms the fact that Congress, not the president, has the authority to determine its own rules.”

Cornyn criticized Obama for making “unilateral actions” that gave “the perception he doesn’t care what Congress says.”

“As a matter of fact, this morning the Supreme Court rebuked the President on an illegal recess appointment — unconstitutional recess appointment,” Cornyn said during a floor speech, according to the Congressional Record.

Scott was not a member of Congress when the Supreme Court issued its ruling.

Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley at the time praised “the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down President Obama’s illegal recess appointments.”

“Article II, section 2 of the Constitution provides for only two ways in which Presidents may appoint certain officers: First, it provides that the President nominates and, by and with the advice of the Senate, appoints various officers,” Grassley said. “Second, it permits the President to make temporary appointments when a vacancy in one of those offices happens when the Senate is in recess.”

During Trump’s first term in office, Senate Republicans held pro forma sessions as a way to avoid recess appointments and ensure the chamber had the time to vet the people Trump wanted to run some of the most powerful institutions in the country, including the Defense Department.

Any recess appointments Trump might make in the future would expire at the end of the Senate’s “next session,” meaning he would need to go through the process all over again within two years, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

Election planned Wednesday

Senate Republicans will hold closed-door, secret ballot leadership elections Wednesday to select new colleagues to fill the top positions.

Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who has held the Republican leader title since 2007, opted not to continue in that role once the new Congress begins, leading to a three-way race between Cornyn, Scott and Thune.

Whoever Republicans elect as their next leader, along with the other members of the leadership team, will have a significant role determining the Senate’s agenda for the next two years as well as setting the tone with the incoming Trump administration.

They’ll also need to broker deals with Democrats on must-pass legislation, like the annual government funding bills and yearly defense policy bill.

Wyoming’s John Barrasso is running unopposed for the whip position, currently held by Thune and previously held by Cornyn.

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton and Iowa’s Joni Ernst are competing to hold the No. 3 leadership position of Conference Chair, currently held by Barrasso.

Republicans will also elect a Policy Committee Chairman, Vice Chairman of the Conference and chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee to round out the six-person Senate leadership team.

Former Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas Homan speaks on stage on the third day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 17, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump late Sunday announced he will appoint Tom Homan as “border czar” in his administration as Trump seeks to carry out his campaign commitment of mass deportations of immigrants who lack permanent legal status.

Homan is the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the previous Trump administration who backed the controversial “zero tolerance” policy that separated families at the southern border.

Homan will have authority over the southern border, northern border, the maritime border and aviation security, according to a post from Trump’s social media site, Truth Social. Trump did not in the social media post specify what exact government post Homan would occupy.

“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders,” Trump said. “I have no doubt he will do a fantastic, and long awaited for, job.”

Another former Trump official who played a heavy role in immigration policy, Stephen Miller, will be appointed as White House deputy chief of staff for policy, according to CNN. Vice president-elect J.D. Vance congratulated Miller on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

As the incoming Trump administration plans to carry out mass deportations of people without proper legal status, Trump said Homan will be in charge of sending deported people back to their countries of origin. In order for that to happen, the country of origin must agree to accept those people the United States wants to deport.

Homan served as acting director of ICE from 2017 to 2018. In a recent interview with CBS News, he said that deportations would be targeted.

“It’s going to be a well-targeted, planned operation conducted by the men of ICE. The men and women of ICE do this daily. They’re good at it,” Homan said. “When we go out there, we’re going to know who we’re looking for. We most likely know where they’re going to be, and it’s going to be done in a humane manner.”

There are more than 14.4 million individuals who live in mixed status families, meaning that at least one member has a different legal status. During the interview, Homan was asked if mass deportations could happen without separating families.

“Of course there is,” he said. “Families can be deported together.”

Under the 2018 “zero tolerance” policy, at least 5,000 migrant families were separated. The Department of Homeland Security has reunited about 74% of those families, but there are still 998 children who have not been reunited.

Trump has previously declined to say whether he would resume family separations in a second term.

“Well, when you have that policy, people don’t come. If a family hears that they’re going to be separated, they love their family. They don’t come. So I know it sounds harsh,” Trump said during a CNN town hall in May 2023. 

Voters make selections at their voting booths inside an early voting site on Oct. 17, 2024 in Hendersonville, North Carolina. (Photo by Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — As an exceedingly bitter, tight and dark campaign for the presidency moves into its last moments, apprehensive election officials and experts warn Election Day is only the first step.

The closing of the polls and end of mail-in voting kick off a nearly three-month process before the next president of the United States is sworn in on Inauguration Day in January. New guardrails were enacted by Congress in 2022 to more fully protect the presidential transition, following the Jan. 6, 2021 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters and a failed scheme to install fake electors.

But even before that shift to a new chief executive begins, a presidential victor is unlikely to be announced election night or even the following day.

It’s a result that will possibly take days to determine, given tight margins expected in seven swing states. Officials needed four days to count all the votes to determine President Joe Biden the victor of the 2020 presidential election.

In states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the law does not allow that process to begin for millions of mail-in ballots until Election Day. Other states allow pre-processing of ballots.

Trey Grayson, Kentucky’s former Republican secretary of state, said ballot authentication could be on different timelines across the country after voting ends on Election Day.

“We have 50 states, plus D.C., that pretty much all do it differently,” Grayson, who served as president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, told reporters Friday on a call of bipartisan former state election officials who are working to explain the process to the public.

It could mean “in a very close election that we don’t know on election night who the president is or who controls the House or the Senate, but we should feel confident over the next couple of days, as we work through that, that we’re going to get there,” he said.

Lawsuits and potential recounts 

Those delays, which former President Donald Trump seized on to spread the baseless lie that the election was stolen from him, are expected again in November, especially as all eyes will be on the battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Additionally, there already are hundreds of pre-election lawsuits, mainly filed by Republicans, ranging from election integrity challenges to accusations of noncitizens allowed to vote in federal elections — something that rarely happens and is already illegal. The legal challenges could further spark delays.

“We will not have a winner on election night most likely and so we need to be able to prepare the public for this,” said Virginia Kase Solomón, the president and CEO of the democracy watchdog group Common Cause, during a Tuesday briefing.

She added that her organization will focus on combating misinformation and disinformation on election night and beyond.

“There is the potential that somebody could claim the win before … all of the votes have been counted,” she said.

In the early morning hours after Election Day in 2020, before results from key states were determined, Trump falsely claimed he won in an address at the White House.  

On top of that, experts say this year could see election denial erupting in countless courtrooms and meeting rooms in localities and the states, as well as across social media, if doubts are sown about the results.

Recounts could also delay an official election result, and the laws vary from state to state.

For example, in Pennsylvania, if a candidate demands a recount, three voters from each of the over 9,000 precincts have to petition for a recount.

“We’ve never seen that happen actually in Pennsylvania,” Kathy Boockvar, the commonwealth’s former Democratic secretary of state, said on Friday’s call with reporters.

An automatic statewide recount is triggered in Pennsylvania if there’s a difference of a half percent of all votes cast for the winner and loser. The final recount results, by law, are due to the secretary of state by Nov. 26, and results would be announced on Nov. 27, Boockvar said.

The margin in Pennsylvania’s 2020 results for the presidential election was between 1.1% and 1.2%, not enough to trigger the automatic recount, Boockvar said.

Taking out the shrubs

State election officials have been preparing for the past year to train poll workers to not only run the voting booths but for possible violence — a precaution put in place after the 2020 election — and have beefed up security around polling locations.

On Friday, Trump posted on X that the election “will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.”

A reporter asked Grayson about the possibility of aggression from poll watchers. The Republican National Committee announced in April a “historic move to safeguard the integrity of the electoral process,” establishing party-led trainings for poll watchers.

Poll watchers are not a new concept, and Grayson said clear “safeguards” are in place.

“If you’re intimidating, you’re gone. There’s clear laws in every state on that,” he said.

Celestine Jeffreys, the city clerk in Green Bay, Wisconsin, said during a Wednesday roundtable with election workers that the city has an Election Day protocol in place that includes everything from blocking off streets to City Hall to getting rid of shrubbery.

“We have actually removed bushes in front of City Hall” to ensure no one can be concealed behind them, she said. In the second assassination attempt on Trump earlier this year, a gunman hid in bushes outside Trump’s private golf course.

New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said during a Tuesday briefing she is focused on the physical safety of election officials.

During the event with the National Association of Secretaries of State, she said such safety is not only a priority during voting but when officials move to certify the state’s election results in December.

“We have all been spending a lot more time on physical security and making sure that our election officials at all levels are more physically secure this year,” Toulouse Oliver said. “And of course, you know when our electors meet in our states, you know, ensuring for the physical security of that process and those individuals as well.”

On Dec. 17, each state’s electors will meet to vote for the president and vice president. Congress will vote to certify the results on Jan. 6.

“We are thinking a lot more about this in 2024 than we did in 2020, but I think that each one of us… have a playbook in mind for how to handle any unanticipated eventualities in the certification process,” she said.

It’s a security precaution that the U.S. Secret Service is also taking.

For the first time, Congress’ certification of the Electoral College on Jan. 6 has been designated a National Special Security Event, something that is usually reserved for Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.

The 2020 experience

In 2020, The Associated Press did not call the presidential election for Biden until 11:26 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 7 — roughly three-and-a-half days after polls closed. The AP, as well as other media organizations, project election winners after local officials make initial tabulations public.

Those tallies are then canvassed, audited and certified, according to each state’s legal timeline. Recounts may also extend the timeline before final certification.

The vote totals reported in Pennsylvania — a state that carried 20 Electoral College votes in 2020 — put Biden over the top for the 270 needed to win the presidency.

Trump refused to concede the race, and instead promised to take his fight to court.

For the next two months, Trump and his surrogates filed just over 60 lawsuits challenging the results in numerous states. Ultimately none of the judges found evidence of widespread voter fraud.

The next step was for Congress to count each state’s certified slate of electors, which by law, it must do on the Jan. 6 following a presidential election.

However, in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, Trump and his private lawyers worked to replace legitimate slates of electors with fake ones, according to hundreds of pages of records compiled by a special congressional investigation, and by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Trump pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to block ratification of the Electoral College’s vote at the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress, because the vice president’s role in the certification of electoral votes was not exactly clear in the Electoral Count Act of 1887.

Pence ultimately refused.

Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 following a “Stop the Steal” rally at The Ellipse park, south of the White House, where Trump told the crowd “We will never concede.”

The mob assaulted police officers, broke windows to climb inside and hurled violent threats aimed at elected officials, including the desire to “hang” Pence. More than 1,500 defendants have been charged by the Department of Justice.

Congress stopped its process of reviewing the state electors in the 2 p.m. Eastern hour as police ushered the lawmakers to safety. The joint session resumed at roughly 11:30 p.m., and Pence called the majority of electoral votes for Biden at nearly 4 a.m. on Jan. 7.

New law on presidential transition

To deter another Jan. 6 insurrection, Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transitional Improvement Act of 2022 as part of a massive appropriations bill.

The Electoral Count Reform Act codifies into law that the vice president, who also serves as the president of the U.S. Senate, only ceremoniously reads aloud a roll call of the votes.

Most notably, the provision raises the threshold for lawmakers to make an objection to electors. Previously, only one U.S. House representative and one U.S. senator would need to make an objection to an elector or slate of electors.

But under the new law, it would take one-fifth of members to lodge an objection and under very specific standards — 87 House members and 20 senators.

The Electoral Count Reform Act also identifies that each state’s governor is the official responsible for submitting the state’s official document that identifies the state’s appointed electors, and says that Congress cannot accept that document from any official besides the governor, unless otherwise specified by the state’s law.

Trump and his allies tried to replace legitimate slates of electors in several states with fake electors who would cast ballots for Trump.

The Presidential Transitional Improvement Act provides candidates with funding and resources for transitional planning, even if a candidate has not conceded after the election.

There are already issues with the transition of power. The top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, sent a Wednesday letter to Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, urging them to sign documents to ensure a peaceful transition of power.

“With fewer than three weeks left until an election in which the American people will select a new President of the United States, I urge you to put the public’s interest in maintaining a properly functioning government above any personal financial or political interests you may perceive in boycotting the official transition law and process,” Raskin wrote.

Denial expected at all levels of government

Experts warn the effort to delay certification of the vote is largely being fought at the local and state levels, and that several groups are gearing up to sow doubt in the election outcome.

Devin Burghart, president of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, said on a press call Wednesday that since 2020, “election denial has shifted away from the capital to county election commission meetings, courtrooms, cyber symposiums and countless conspiracies in preparation for a repeat this November.”

“This time, the baseless claim that undocumented immigrants are somehow swamping the polls has fueled the ‘big lie’ machine,” Burghart said.

Kim Wyman, the former Washington state secretary of state, said the noncitizen topic is not new.

In two high-profile cases, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Republican-led efforts in Alabama and Virginia to purge voter rolls after alleging thousands of noncitizens were registered to vote. Both states were ordered to stop the programs and reinstate voters – though Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin promised Friday to appeal and even escalate to the Supreme Court.

In Georgia, the state’s Supreme Court delayed new rules until after this election that would have required three poll workers at every precinct to count ballots by hand once the polls closed — essentially delaying unofficial election results.

More than 165 electoral process lawsuits across 37 states have been filed by both parties since 2023 leading up to the 2024 presidential election, according to a survey by Bloomberg of pre-election cases. The journalists found that more than half the cases have been filed in swing states, and challenge almost every facet of the voting process, from absentee voting, to voter roll management, voter eligibility and vote certification.

Republican and conservative groups have filed roughly 55% of the lawsuits, mostly aimed at narrowing who can vote, and overall most of the cases were filed in August and September, according to the analysis.

Courts threw out dozens of lawsuits claiming voter fraud in 2020.

Mai Ratakonda, senior counsel at States United Democracy Center, said anti-democracy groups have used litigation “to legitimize their efforts to sow doubt in our election system.”

“We’ve unfortunately continued to see this trend of filing lawsuits to bolster and legitimize narratives that our elections are insecure and laying the groundwork to contest results later,” Ratakonda told reporters on a press call Wednesday hosted by the organization, whose stated mission is to protect nonpartisan election administration.

Timeline of key presidential election dates

• Nov. 5, 2024—Election Day
  The voters in each state choose electors to serve in the Electoral College.
• By Dec. 11, 2024—Electors appointed
  The executive of each state signs the Certificate of Ascertainment to appoint the electors chosen in the general election.
• Dec. 17, 2024—Electors vote
  The electors in each state meet to select the president and vice president of the United States.
• Jan. 6, 2025—Congress counts the vote
  Congress meets in joint session to count the electoral votes.
• Jan. 20, 2025—Inauguration Day
  The president-elect is sworn in as president of the United States.

Source: The National Archives and Records Administration

Correction: This report has been updated to reflect that former Washington state Secretary of State Kim Wyman made the comment that noncitizen voting has been illegal at the federal level since 1996.