A federal watchdog will review how the Biden administration chose a site for a new FBI headquarters following a contentious competition marked by allegations of conflict of interest from the bureau's director.
The inspector general for the General Services Administration is probing the decision to replace the FBI’s crumbling headquarters in Washington, D.C., with a facility in Greenbelt, Maryland, rather than a site in Virginia, according to a letter released Thursday by Virginia lawmakers.
The GSA, for its part, said it chose the site due to lower costs and easy access to transit. It stands behind the process.
GSA Acting Inspector General Robert Erickson said his office will "immediately" begin what he called an "evaluation" of just how the GSA settled on Greenbelt for the new headquarters.
Virginia lawmakers have pushed for this ever since FBI Director Christopher Wray questioned whether the process for choosing Greenbelt was fair.
Virginia lawmakers are calling for a pause on the project until the inquiry is complete.
Maryland lawmakers had barely begun to celebrate the selection of Greenbelt as the future FBI headquarters when the fallout began. First, with FBI director Wray raising concerns about "fairness and transparency in the process,” and then Virginia lawmakers sent a letter to the OIG, saying there is "overwhelming evidence" the selection process was unfair.
First, they say that in July of this year, the GSA made changes to the selection criteria – changes Virginia lawmakers say were "meant to tilt the selection process in favor of Greenbelt." Second, they question why the GSA replaced a longtime employee overseeing the headquarters selection with a political appointee who used to work for Metro. The FBI director called that a potential conflict of interest since the Greenbelt site is owned by Metro. Third, they question why that political appointee chose Greenbelt, overruling the three-person panel that unanimously chose Springfield as the best site.
“Any objective person would look at this process and realize it stinks of political interference,” U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, of Virginia, said.
“The people, men and women who work at the FBI deserve an answer. Taxpayers deserve an answer. Elected officials deserve an answer. And I'm glad that inspector general is going to act on this because failure to act would be a huge mistake,” Warner said.
In a letter to Warner's office Thursday, Acting Inspector General Erickson said his goal is to "assess the agency's process and procedures for the site selection" but did not say how long that process might take. Notably -- he called the review an "evaluation" -- something Maryland officials tell us is key and different from a formal "investigation."
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen said he isn't worried about the outcome of this evaluation.
“I am absolutely confident that the FBI headquarters will be built in Greenbelt Maryland and that's because if you read the opinion of the decision-maker it's clear, it's transparent and it shows a thorough evaluation of all the criteria,” he said.
News4 reached out to the inspector general's office about the difference between an “evaluation” and “investigation” and a spokeswoman said evaluations like this one are handled by their office of inspections. She said they plan to work quickly but don’t have a timeframe and that it would be up to the GSA to act on any potential recommendations.
The GSA has repeatedly defended the fairness of its process, saying the site selector always had the right to go a different direction than the panel. They say they welcome this review and stand behind their final decision.
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Sources tell News4 all of the back-and-forth could hurt funding for the new headquarters, especially as some Republicans in the more conservative wing of the House have questioned the need to invest in this project at all.
In a statement to News4, the Maryland delegation defended the process and said for the "sake of our national security" and the men and women of the FBI "it's imperative that we move expeditiously" in building the new site.
Caroline Tucker, Jeff Piper, Jenny Cushman and Ambrose Vurnis contributed reporting.
