FBI chief cites ‘potential conflict of interest’ in selection process for new headquarters
WASHINGTON — The contentious debate over a new FBI headquarters intensified further Thursday as the agency’s director said he was concerned about a “potential conflict of interest” in the site selection and the White House defended the process as “fair and transparent.” One senator said there is a clear need for a federal investigation.
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray’s unusually sharp criticism came in an internal email to agency employees that was obtained by the Associated Press. It was the latest twist in a vigorous competition among jurisdictions in the national capital region to land America’s premier law enforcement agency.
The General Services Administration has chosen Greenbelt, Md., a Washington suburb, to be the home of a new FBI facility to replace the crumbling J. Edgar Hoover Building, which is near the White House.
Wray said he objected to the selection process rather than the Greenbelt site itself.
The GSA, which manages the government’s real estate, said the site, about 13 miles northeast of Washington, was the cheapest and had the best access to public transit. But Wray asserted in his note that the choice came after a GSA executive overruled a board’s decision and picked land owned by a former employer.
Democratic Sen. Mark R. Warner of Virginia, whose state also vied for the project, called for an investigation.
“I had felt that this has been grossly political with efforts to try to change the criteria, but I was astounded when we found out that three career officials unanimously picked Virginia and a political appointee overturned it,” he said. “Clearly, there needs to be an inspector general investigation.”
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In a joint statement, Virginia’s elected leaders called for the decision to be reversed, asserting that their state’s site remains the best choice under “any fair weighing of the criteria.”
But GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan stood behind her agency’s work, saying officials followed all laws and ethical considerations.
“Any suggestion that there was inappropriate interference is unfounded,” she said.
White House spokesperson Olivia Dalton also defended the process. She did not say whether President Biden had any direct involvement in the final site decision.
“I can tell you it was a fair and transparent process,” Dalton told reporters on Air Force One as Biden traveled to Illinois on Thursday.
“The 61 acres in Greenbelt is both the lowest cost to taxpayers, most transportation options for FBI workers, and we had the most assurances about the expeditious means with which a project could get underway,” she said.
Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said that Wray had previously indicated he would prefer to stay in Washington, but that experts had said a suburban location would be better for the FBI’s security.
“To say somehow this process was skewed is wrong,” Hoyer said.
Maryland and Virginia had both vied for the new headquarters; Virginia is home to the FBI Academy.
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Congress directed the administration last year to consider three sites for the new headquarters: Greenbelt and Landover, Md., and Springfield, Va.
A board that included GSA and FBI representatives unanimously agreed on Springfield, Wray wrote in the internal email. But a senior GSA executive changed course and went with Greenbelt, the FBI director said.
“The FBI observed that, at times, outside information was inserted into the process in a manner which appeared to disproportionately favor Greenbelt, and the justifications for the departures from the panel were varied and inconsistent,” he wrote.
The land in Greenbelt is owned by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which once employed the senior GSA executive in question, according to Wray’s email.
“Despite our engagement with GSA over the last two months on these issues, our concerns about the process remain unresolved,” Wray wrote. “There are still a lot of open questions, and we’ve still got a long way to go.”
Carnahan, the head of the GSA, said that her agency had listened to the FBI, and that “at every step, the GSA team has worked to incorporate the FBI’s feedback and appropriately address their concerns, including conducting a legal review of each concern raised.”
Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
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