FBI Director Christopher Wray tore apart the decision-making process for the bureau’s new headquarters Thursday after a site in suburban Maryland was chosen — suggesting that President Biden’s top appointee may have improperly influenced the selection.
On Wednesday, the General Services Administration independently confirmed it had chosen Greenbelt, about 13 miles northeast of Washington, to be the FBI’s new home.
However, Wray told bureau employees in a memo Thursday that “we have concerns about fairness and transparency in the process and GSA’s failure to adhere to its own site selection plan.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, a panel of three career officials — two from the GSA and one from the FBI — has unanimously voted to relocate the law enforcement agency to Springfield, Va., about 15 miles southwest of DC and closer to with the bureau. operations at Quantico Marine Base and other national security agencies
Chris Wray is generally polite. But he made his dissatisfaction with the FBI headquarters selection process famous.Getty Images
However, Wray claims, an official at the GSA — which manages the federal government’s real estate holdings — unilaterally changed the site selection criteria to boost the Greenbelt plan.
“The result of that one-way change of senior executives was that Greenbelt became the highest-rated site,” he said, noting that such rejections, “while not necessarily inappropriate, are extremely rare.”
The Journal, citing sources, identified the official as Nina Albert, a former vice president at Washington, DC’s public transportation authority who was appointed GSA Public Building Services commissioner by Biden in July 2021. The outlet added that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority ( WMATA), Albert’s former employer, owns the land where the planned Greenbelt headquarters is located.
The FBI is now housed in the J. Edgar Hoover Building not far from the White House.REUTERS
Last month, Albert left the GSA to become the District of Columbia’s acting deputy mayor for planning and economic development.
Following the FBI director’s message, a bipartisan crew of Virginia elected officials, led by Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, issued a rare joint statement protesting the GSA.
“We have repeatedly condemned political interference in the agency’s independent site selection process for the new FBI headquarters,” wrote the group, which includes all 11 Virginia House lawmakers. “Any fair weighing of the criteria points to Virginia’s selection. It is clear that the process has been irrevocably compromised and tainted, and this decision must be overturned.”
Tim Kaine and Mark Warner were not happy with the decision.Getty Images
The GSA denies that bias played a role in the selection process.
“The GSA and FBI teams have spent many hours working closely together over the past several months, so we are disappointed that the FBI Director is now making inaccurate claims directed at our agency, our employees and our site selection plan and process,” Administrator Robin Carnahan said. in a statement Thursday.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since 1975, the FBI has operated out of the J. Edgar Hoover Building in downtown Washington.
The headquarters, named after the bureau’s long-serving and controversial first director, has been repeatedly ripped for its Brutalist design — out of step with much of the capital’s architecture.
Some surveys have considered it one of the most terrifying buildings in the world.
The current FBI headquarters is generally considered one of the ugliest buildings in the world. JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Real estate mogul and former President Donald Trump went so far as to call it “one of the ugliest buildings in the city.”
The GSA began considering moving the bureau’s headquarters around 2013, in response to complaints that the current building no longer met the security needs of the marquee domestic law enforcement agency.
The Trump administration halted the transfer effort in 2017, sparking controversy. However, the inspector general’s report last month found that the then-president did not improperly pressure the FBI to remain at its current site.
Efforts to relocate the FBI were revived in the 2021 omnibus bill that drew criticism from some Republicans, such as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who has clashed with the bureau over its alleged treatment of the 45th president and allegations of bias. against conservatives.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
