Trump administration officially begins transition to Biden after weeks of delay

General Services Administration chief Emily Murphy on Monday told President-elect Joe Biden that the Trump administration is making federal resources available for his transition into office. The letter from Murphy, who had withheld her decision on ascertaining Biden’s electoral victory for weeks after the Nov. 3 election, was revealed minutes before President Donald Trump tweeted that he approved of the move.

The letter marks one of the first clear indications of the Trump administration acknowledging defeat in the 2020 election. But Trump has still refused to explicitly concede the race to Biden, who is projected to win 306 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232.

Trump has falsely asserted that he won the election “by a lot,” and has promoted a variety of conspiracies that allege widespread electoral fraud without evidence.

Lawyers for the Trump campaign, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, have lodged lawsuits in many of the key swing states that helped put Biden over the top in the election. Most of them, which in some cases have asked judges to block states from certifying their final vote tallies, have been rejected.

Murphy’s letter followed the latest series of setbacks in Trump’s efforts to overturn the projected outcome of the election, including another court loss in Pennsylvania and the certification of the vote totals in Georgia and Michigan.

Murphy said in her letter to Biden that her decision frees up more than $7 million in federal funding for his transition. Biden’s team was already fundraising in the wake of Election Day and had been on track to achieve its fundraising goals.

Trump administration officially begins transition to Biden after weeks of delay, CNBC, Nov 24