Inside the White House, multiple attorneys and advisers were huddled with Trump in the Oval Office and on the phone Monday, trying to persuade him to proceed with the transition, a source close to the conversations said. White House counsel Pat Cipollone and chief of staff Mark Meadows, as well as outside attorneys Jay Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani, were discussing the path forward with Trump, this source said.

A White House official referred a request for comment to GSA, and a GSA spokesperson declined to comment for this story.

After Murphy’s letter, Trump praised her in the tweet in which he took credit for recommending the transition begin, thanking her for “her steadfast dedication and loyalty to our Country.”

Murphy was “shocked” by the tweet, one source said.