Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said Thursday he will try to block the move of FBI headquarters to Maryland, citing FBI Director Christopher A. Wray’s concerns last month about “fairness” in the site selection process.
“This is a bombshell revelation,” Mr. Kaine posted on X. “The Biden Administration’s decision to pick Maryland instead of Virginia, even over the unanimous recommendations of experts, is unacceptable. I am going to push to reverse this decision.”
In a letter on Oct. 12, Mr. Wray told the head of the General Services Administration, Robert Carnahan, that the process for selecting a location for the new FBI headquarters should be restarted. He said a former GSA official who had been in charge of the process had ignored the recommendations of a panel convened to choose the location.
He said the GSA official was a former employee of Metro, the owner of the Greenbelt site where the FBI is to relocate, and “was later granted overarching power to select the site without adhering to the recommendation of the unanimous panel and with limitless ability to decide when outside information should and should not be considered in making the site selection decision.”
Mr. Wray said the FBI “cannot accept a site selection decision with these unresolved issues.”
The Washington Post first reported on Mr. Wray’s letter.
The GSA announced Wednesday it has chosen a site next to the Greenbelt Metro Station in Maryland as the new FBI headquarters.
In an email to FBI employees Thursday, Mr. Wray said the panel working on the decision had unanimously chosen a site in Springfield, Virginia, but was overruled by the GSA.
“Unfortunately, we have concerns about fairness and transparency in the process and GSA’s failure to adhere to its own site selection plan,” Mr. Wray said in the email. “Despite our engagement with GSA over the last two months on these issues, our concerns about the process remain unresolved.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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