Trump insider pursuing bid for FBI building contract, raising questions of conflict of interest
Source: abc News
In what ethics experts are calling a glaring “direct conflict” of interest, a significant business partner of both President Donald Trump and his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner is pursuing a $2 billion government contract to build a new headquarters for the FBI.
“It creates a huge conflict,” said Rep. Gerald Connolly, a Virginia Democrat who sits on the House Oversight Committee. “It’s an enormous project. The exposure here for the Trump administration is very real.”
Vornado Realty Trust, a giant New York real estate firm whose founder and chairman Steven Roth is a longtime friend and occasional advisor to President Trump, is one of three finalists for the rights to develop a new FBI headquarters and campus in the Washington, D.C. region. Roth is helping head up Trump’s infrastructure advisory council and traveled with the president as he rolled out his plans last week, briefly sharing the stage with him in Cincinnati – with Trump introducing him to the crowd as one of “the greatest builders in America.”
Through business partnerships with both the Trump Organization and the Kushner Company, Roth’s firm has a level of financial codependence with the First Family that Connolly said could spark intense debate over the Trump administration’s handling of potential conflicts.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-insider-pursuing-bid-fbi-building-contract-raising/story?id=47981206
They are also involved in Kushners 666 5th building - yikes
= new reply since forum marked as read
between his White House work and his family business.
“Jared takes the ethics rules very seriously and would never compromise himself or the administration,” a White House official told ABC News. “In consultation with the Office of the White House Counsel, he is fully complying with federal ethics rules and will recuse as necessary.”
Already, Kushner has faced questions about presentations his family firm made in China – a road show in which his sister referenced Jared’s White House stature as she marketed a New Jersey development to potential investors. Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of the ethics watchdog group CREW, said he harbors even greater concerns about the FBI headquarters project. It is not uncommon in Washington, he said, to find indirect conflicts of interest, where a broad policy change might benefit someone close to a political leader, but this is different.
“This is a case where the conflict is direct,” Bookbinder said. “They have business ties to a company that stands to benefit from a direct decision of the administration.”'
Well, there's THIS: GSA won't decide next steps in FBI search until spending bill passes.
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2017/05/02/gsa-to-defer-decision-on-fbi-hq-until-bill-passes.html
And I recall seeing an article about dispute about location, in which Steny Hoyer (represents Prince George's County, MD,) is involved.
