A group of Senate Democrats has called on the Department of Justice’s inspector general to investigate what went on behind the scenes ahead of the FBI’s revised preference to remain in downtown D.C. instead of shifting to a consolidated headquarters in the suburbs.
The request to Inspector General Michael Horowitz, in a letter dated Friday, picks up where a report by the inspector general’s office for the General Services Administration left off. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, led the call for Horowitz’s office to look into the extent to which President Donald Trump and other White House officials “were involved in the abrupt decision to reverse course on plans for the FBI consolidation project, and whether that involvement was appropriate.”
Co-signers to Carper’s letter were Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, Mark Warner, D-Va., Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.
The request comes less than a month after the inspector general’s office for the GSA issued a report finding White House officials were involved in discussions ahead of the FBI’s publicly announced plan for a new headquarters on the site of the J. Edgar Hoover Building at 935 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. That investigative timeline only began once the FBI had made that decision and engaged the GSA.