FBI Director Christopher Wray raised alarm on Thursday over the General Services Administration’s process for choosing Greenbelt, Maryland, as the location of the bureau’s new multibillion-dollar headquarters, saying he was worried about “potential conflicts of interest” behind the decision.
“Unfortunately, we have concerns about fairness and transparency in the process and GSA’s failure to adhere to its own site selection plan,” Wray wrote in a memo obtained by the Washington Examiner that he sent to all FBI employees.
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The headquarters selection process has been a yearslong fight between Maryland and Virginia, and it ramped up in July when, according to Wray, the GSA began a two-phase evaluation of three preestablished options: Greenbelt and Landover, Maryland, and Springfield, Virginia.
Wray said during the first phase, career government officials and experts unanimously agreed Springfield was the best option.
During the second phase, however, Wray said one lone senior executive, “a political appointee,” countered numerous aspects of the first phase’s evaluation. The FBI director said nearly every deviation that executive made favored Greenbelt.
Wray said he identified a “potential conflict of interest” with the executive and raised “serious concerns” about it before the selection process concluded. Wray said he did not receive any meaningful responses.
Detailing the perceived conflict of interest, Wray said the executive’s prior employer was the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which owns the Greenbelt parcel of land in question.
The GSA disputed Wray’s charges in a statement, saying the agency had worked with the FBI for months and that the GSA was “disappointed” by Wray’s “inaccurate claims.”
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“Any suggestion that there was inappropriate interference is unfounded,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan, adding that the choice of Greenbelt was “fully consistent with the decision-making process as well as all laws, regulations, and ethical considerations.”
Carnahan said the GSA “stand[s] behind” the selection process.
