(DailyVantage.com) – As if his impeachment issues and the ongoing cases against his son Hunter aren’t enough, President Joe Biden has another investigation on his plate after a government watchdog said it will be looking into the Biden administration’s plan to relocate the FBI headquarters to Maryland.
A letter from the Inspector General for the General Services Administration said that the agency will be investigating a supposed “conflict of interest” in the White House’s choice of location for the new FBI HQ, which was a highly competitive toss-up between Greenbelt, Maryland, and Springfield, Virginia. The Biden Administration picked the former, igniting criticism among Virginia lawmakers as well as FBI officials.
The FBI director himself, Christopher Wray, reportedly sent an email to staff saying that there was a potential “conflict of interest” when the Biden Administration picked Greenbelt, Maryland. Wray claimed that a senior official from the General Services Administration (GSA) picked the site because the new location was on land owned by that official’s former employer, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Wray further claimed that the final decision lacked “fairness and transparency” and, on top of that, overturned an earlier one made by a joint board comprised of officials from the FBI and the GSA, which was effectively a “failure” by the GSA to “adhere to its own site selection plan.”
The GSA is the agency responsible for matters related to the government’s real estate portfolio.
A bipartisan group made up of members of Virginia’s congressional delegation agrees, claiming that there is “overwhelming evidence” pointing to the site decision being a political arrangement. The delegation also asked that any plans for the relocation be put on hold until after the results of the investigation.
In a statement, the delegation of Virginia representatives thanked the inspector general for “moving quickly” on their concerns and called for a “complete, careful, and thorough review” of the FBI HQ site selection process.
For its part, the White House has maintained that the site selection was conducted in a “fair and transparent” manner.
Lawmakers from Maryland said they were confident that the investigation would show that the site selection was a “thorough and transparent process.” The GSA said it welcomes the investigation and stands behind its decision.
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