THE ADMINISTRATION'S ATTEMPTS TO STONEWALL INVESTIGATIONS OF TRUMP FBI HEADQUARTERS INTERFERENCE STU
PUBLISH DATE: APRIL 21, 2020
THE ADMINISTRATION’S ATTEMPTS TO STONEWALL INVESTIGATIONS OF TRUMP FBI HEADQUARTERS INTERFERENCE STUMBLE IN COURT
By HART W. WOOD
American Oversight’s investigation into the president’s influence over a multibillion-dollar government project has been met with delaying tactics, inadequate searches, and unjustified document withholding. But two recent federal court decisions have ruled that federal agencies cannot continue to stonewall and avoid transparency.
The decisions are the first in a series of lawsuits that American Oversight filed against the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice, and the General Services Administration (GSA) to force transparency regarding the FBI headquarters consolidation — a longstanding relocation project that suddenly reversed course after reported interference by President Donald Trump, whose namesake hotel sits just a few blocks away.
The story of the consolidation project — and of those lawsuits — goes back more than a decade. In 2005, the FBI first stated its need to move its headquarters from the J. Edgar Hoover (JEH) building in downtown Washington, DC, which was then already inadequate in terms of space and security. The Government Accountability Office affirmed in 2011 the need to relocate the headquarters to a location that provides true security in accordance with federal standards. A massive, interagency effort was undertaken over the next six years to make that relocation happen.
But the plan abruptly changed under President Trump. The long-sought relocation was suddenly scuttled early in his administration, in favor of the costlier option of building a new headquarters in the same place as the JEH building. Interestingly, news reports indicated that high-level Trump administration officials, including the president himself, may have played roles in the about-face. Documents released in October 2018 by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform further revealed the unusual involvement of Trump in the procurement process, with emails referring to the decision as “direction from the White House,” “what POTUS directed everyone to do,” and “the project the president wants.”
More:
https://www.americanoversight.org/the-administrations-attempts-to-stonewall-investigations-of-trump-fbi-headquarters-interference-stumble-in-court
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