Trump Cleared by Watchdog Over FBI Headquarters Meddling
Former President Donald Trump told FBI Director Chris Wray in 2017 that he had “tapped the brakes” on a plan to move the bureau’s headquarters from downtown D.C.—where it sat one block from the Trump International Hotel—to the Virginia suburbs, because it “didn’t make sense to him,” according to a report released Tuesday by the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General. Still, the new OIG report says its investigators “found no evidence” that the FBI’s choice to stay put “was based on improper considerations or motives.” Wray “testified credibly to the OIG about how he reached the decision independently and not as the result of any external pressure or influence,” states the report, which specifies that Wray “told us that his decision to recommend staying in the current location was not based on anything that Trump said or wanted.”