Agency accused of misleading lawmakers on FBI project

The U.S. General Services Administration official overseeing plans for a new FBI headquarters delivered incomplete — and possibly misleading — testimony to a congressional committee about the White House’s input, according to an inspector general’s report released Monday.

The GSA inspector general’s report also found the federal agency understated the costs of its plan to rebuild the FBI headquarters on its existing site.

The study’s conclusions alarmed Maryland officials, who once hoped the Federal Bureau of Investigation might relocate to Greenbelt or Landover.

“Not only does the report find that GSA inaccurately accounted for the costs associated with keeping the FBI headquarters at the Pennsylvania Avenue site, but it states that GSA Administrator [Emily] Murphy misled Congress on the White House’s involvement in the project,” said Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer of Southern Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House of Representatives. “These findings, along with previous reports of President Trump’s personal involvement in the construction of a new FBI headquarters, raise serious concerns.”

Murphy’s statements “may have left the misleading impression that she had no discussions with the President or senior White House officials in the decision-making process about the project,” the report states.

Murphy told the inspector general’s office she attended two meetings about the FBI project at the White House on Jan 24, including one with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

In a written statement Monday, GSA replied that the inspector general’s report “acknowledges an indisputable fact: the Administrator’s congressional testimony was truthful.”

But Rep. Anthony G. Brown, who represents parts of Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties, said the inspector general’s report “confirms what I long suspected: heavy-handed involvement by the White House.”

Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, has said the president is particularly interested in the project because the Trump International Hotel is located across the street from the current building site.

But the GSA said its decisions about the project were made because of input from senior FBI leadership, not the White House.