WASHINGTON -- The decrepit old FBI headquarters is almost across the street from the Trump International Hotel. Now, local members of Congress want to know if President Trump scuttled a plan to move the FBI to the suburbs because he was worried a new hotel on the old site might compete with his.
A new report from the General Services Administration Office of Inspector General said officials met twice with the president on the project, and that the GSA left out many of the additional costs of rebuilding at the current downtown location.
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The old building is literally falling apart, with chunks of concrete chipping off the facade. For nearly a decade, local and federal officials worked on a plan to sell off the FBI's prime downtown site, and move headquarters out to the suburbs.
But a year into the Trump Administration, the FBI and federal building officials tossed out the plan for a $3 billion FBI campus in Prince George's or Fairfax. and decided to rebuild on the current site.
Ever since, local leaders have been trying to figure out if the President quashed the old plan.
"Are you aware of any conversations that any member of the Administration has had with the president about the project," Sen. Chris Van Hollen, (D-Maryland) asked leaders of the FBI and the General Service Administration repeatedly at a hearing in March.
"I don't believe I'm in a position to answer the question," responded Richard Haley, the CFO of the FBI.
"I'm not in a position to answer that question," said Dan Mathews, Commissioner of Public Buildings for the GSA.
The report from the GSA Inspector General concluded President Trump did meet with officials at least twice, and that the head of the GSA may have "left the misleading impression" with Congressional investigators..."that she had no discussions with the president."
"Frankly when there seems to be so much co-mingling between Trump business interests and frankly national interests, it raises a lot of concerns for me," said Sen. Mark Warner, (D-Virginia).
A private developer could have put another hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, catty corner from the Trump Hotel. Sen. Van Hollen said the president stands to gain financially by blocking any competition for his hotel.
GSA officials declined to tell the inspector general what the president said at the meetings. But they also insist that the decision to toss out the old plan had already been agreed to by the FBI and the GSA before they met with the president.
