President Donald Trump and key members of his leadership team met with officials from the FBI and General Services Administration ahead of last February’s about-face announcement to keep the nation’s chief law enforcement agency in downtown D.C., contradicting GSA officials’ testimony to Congress.
That’s according to a report released by the office of the GSA’s Inspector General Monday.
Trump, Chief of Staff John Kelly and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were among those in on an Oval Office meeting Jan. 24 when GSA Administrator Emily Murphy and FBI Director Christopher Wray briefed the president on plans for a new FBI headquarters.
The report notes several other meetings with Trump officials going as far back as Dec. 20, when Murphy and GSA Public Buildings Commissioner Dan Mathews met with Kelly and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney in response to a Kelly request for an update on the headquarters project. Mulvaney, at that meeting, first floated the prospect that the FBI might not need a consolidated campus, that FBI officials were concerned about the possibility of a location outside of the District, and that the agency’s preference was to stay in the District.