The Department of Justice Inspector General’s Office released a report on Wednesday after conducting a lengthy investigation, which cleared former President Donald Trump of any wrongdoing concerning the FBI’s plan to relocate its J. Edgar Hoover headquarters building.
This investigation was initiated based on requests from Democrats in Congress who alleged that then-President Trump had influenced FBI Director Christopher Wray to select a relocation site that would obstruct the construction of a competing hotel on the Hoover Building site. Subsequently, the relocation plan was abandoned after the FBI determined it would be financially unfeasible to sell the Hoover Building to a developer for the cost of constructing a new headquarters elsewhere.
According to the report, investigators found no evidence to support the Democrats’ claims, and FBI Director Wray stated that he did not experience any pressure from Trump to make a particular decision.
“Wray told us that his decision to recommend staying in the current location was not based on anything that Trump said or wanted… Wray told us that Trump was ‘not involved’ in Wray’s recommendation, and he did not feel that Trump was trying to ‘steer [him]to a particular outcome,’” they wrote.
“Specifically, we found no evidence that, in making the decision to seek to have the new FBI headquarters remain at its current JEH site, Director Wray or others at the FBI considered the location of the then-named Trump International Hotel or how then-President Trump’s financial interests could be impacted by the decision,” the report reads.”
In 2018, Democrats, led by the late Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, accused Trump of attempting to safeguard his Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., which was conveniently located just a three-minute walk from the Hoover Building.
“Given this background, President Trump should have avoided all interactions or communications relating to the FBI headquarters project to prevent both real and perceived conflicts of interest,” Democrats wrote then. “He should not have played any role in a determination that bears directly on his own financial interests with the Trump hotel.”
The report added:
In September 2017, President Trump called Wray and asked him what he wanted to do about the FBI Headquarters. Wray responded that he had not had a chance to look at the issue yet, and Trump advised Wray to work on it with GSA and tell Trump what Wray thought. In late 2017, then White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told Wray that it did not make sense to the President why the FBI would want to leave the JEH site.
In December 2017, Wray informed GSA that the FBI wanted its Headquarters to remain in its current location. Following a January 4, 2018 meeting in which the FBI presented JEH renovation plans to GSA, GSA recommended demolishing JEH, instead of renovating it, and building a new facility on the site.
“On January 24, 2018, before a meeting with President Trump, Kelly met in his White House office with Wray, then Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, then White House Counsel Donald McGahn, then OMB Director Mick Mulvaney, and then GSA Administrator Emily Murphy,” the report continued.
“During this premeeting, consensus was reached on demolishing JEH and building a new facility on the site, and Wray learned that Mulvaney would support the P3 financing strategy. The same participants then met in the Oval Office with Trump, who asked Wray and Murphy what they were thinking,” the DOJ IG report added.
“Wray and Murphy told Trump that they thought the best idea was for the FBI to build a new facility in the current location, and Trump expressed support for this plan. Wray told us that he did not feel pressured or bullied by Trump in the meeting,” it said.
“Although most of the conversation focused on Trump’s construction questions about the new facility, Wray also recalled impressing on Trump that Mulvaney’s P3 support was critical for the project, but Wray did not remember what Trump said about the project funding,” the report added.
