By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com
The powerful House Oversight Committee will investigate the Trump administration’s decision to prevent the relocation of the outdated FBI headquarters.
Chief among the concerns is Trump’s role in the decision because the current headquarters is a stone’s throw from his Washington D.C. hotel.
The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed multiple lawsuits, claiming the president violated the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by tampering with American security to avoid damaging his business.
Trump’s administration scrapped a longtime plan to move the headquarters to the suburbs and instead wants to build a new building where the current one stands. If the headquarters was relocated, a hotel competitor could replace the current building.
The GSA’s inspector general also has accused the agency’s administrator, Emily Murphy, of misleading Congress about the role the White House played in the project.
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., will lead the committee’s investigation.
“We have a constitutional job to provide that because we’re a separate but coequal branch of government, and we got a mandate in November to do just that,” Connolly told NBC 4 Washington. “The public clearly wants checks and balances on this president — as they do on every president — and we’re going to take that mission very seriously and that constitutional oath very seriously. I take an oath every two years in this job, and I’m going to live up to that oath.”
