EXCLUSIVE: Trump loses half his transition team – plunging from 250 to 125 staffers – in purge of lobbyists
Trump team has lost nearly half its staff and volunteers since instituting a ban on registered lobbyists to ‘drain the swamp’
The purge of lobbyists has allowed conservative think tanks to take a stronger role in the transition.
Heritage Foundation and the Competitive Enterprise Institute are prime among them
Transition workers were asked to sign a form certifying that they were either not currently registered as lobbyists or foreign agents
Three high-profile lobbyists bumped from the transition team: Michael Torrey, Michael Catanzaro and Mike McKenna
Mike Pence, the head of the transition team, touted the lobbyist ban as a sign of Trump’s commitment to change
By ALANA GOODMAN
DAILYMAIL.COM
23 November 2016
The Trump transition team has lost nearly half its staff and volunteers in a matter of days since instituting a ban on registered lobbyists at the end of last week, the Daily Mail has learned.
‘All the lobbyists are gone,’ said one source familiar with the transition. ‘Lobbyists were the vast majority. Now, today you go in and you could count [them] maybe on one hand.’
The source estimated that the number of staffers and volunteers working on the transition plummeted from around 250 late last week to less than 125 on Tuesday. The sudden purge of lobbyists has allowed conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the Competitive Enterprise Institute to take a stronger role in the transition.
One lobbyist who was close to the transition team told the Daily Mail that ‘almost all of’ the lobbyists are gone from the team – although many are trying to influence as much as possible from the outside.
‘Everybody that’s still there has signed a letter saying they’ve deregistered and are okay with the five year ban,’ said the source. ‘It’s not like any transition I’ve ever seen before.’
The Rest…HERE
