美国国家公共电台 NPR Real Estate Firm With Ties To Trump May Build The New FBI Headquarters

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

It would be one of the Washington area's biggest construction projects in years. The FBI is hoping to move out of its aging headquarters and into a safer, more modern campus somewhere in the D.C. suburbs. One of the real estate companies in the running to build it is headed by a man who does business with President Trump¹. Here's NPR's Jim Zarroli.

JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE²: The idea behind the project is this - a developer would agree to build the FBI's new campus. In exchange, that developer would get the current site on Pennsylvania Avenue to do whatever it wanted with. Democrat³ Gerald Connolly is a congressman⁴ from Virginia.

GERALD CONNOLLY: We're not just talking about, well, a routine real estate transaction. We're talking about the choicest property to come on the market in Washington, D.C., in a century.

ZARROLI: The FBI referred questions about the project to the General Services Administration, which wouldn't comment. But it's been widely reported that one of the three finalists picked to develop the project is New-York-based Vornado Realty Trust. Vornado's chairman is Steven Roth, a supporter of the president. Roth appeared with Trump during his recent visit to Cincinnati. Trump called Roth one of the greatest builders in America and then tried to coax⁵ the publicity-shy billionaire up on stage.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Where are you guys? Come here, come here, come here. Come up here, Steve. These people aren't used to this. You know, they like to build. They don't know about this.

(APPLAUSE)

ZARROLI: Trump has so much respect for Roth he named him to an advisory⁶ council on infrastructure⁷. Roth talked about the post during a February conference call with Wall Street analysts⁸.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

STEVEN ROTH: I'm honored to be involved in it. I think I can contribute. I am an adviser⁹. I am not a line - I'm not a line executive. I am not in any way an employee of the government. And so this is something that we do when asked.

ZARROLI: But Roth is more than an adviser to Trump. He's also a business partner. Vornado and Trump are co-owners of office buildings in New York and San Francisco. Roth described their relationship this way during the February call.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ROTH: I know President Trump. I've known him for a very long time. We have had dealings together. We know each other.

ZARROLI: And Vornado is also an investor¹⁰ in a troubled Manhattan building owned by the family of the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Normally this wouldn't matter. Steven Kelman, a federal procurement¹¹ official during the Clinton Administration, says big construction projects like this one are overseen¹² by career civil servants.

STEVEN KELMAN: In terms of the way the cut - the procurement system legally functions, the White House is not allowed to be involved in this. The president does not get involved. The White House does not get involved in who should get a contract. Certainly they're not supposed to.

ZARROLI: But Congressman Connolly says this case is different. He says the financial ties between the president and Vornado represent a baked-in conflict of interest.

CONNOLLY: And that puts a cloud over Vornado's otherwise perfectly¹³ sensible bid.

ZARROLI: Connolly notes that the current site of the FBI headquarters is right across the street from Trump's Washington hotel, so the president has a big stake in what gets built there. Connolly says the whole thing is just too murky¹⁴. And it's made even more so because the president won't release his tax returns.

CONNOLLY: And so we have to make some assumptions about potential conflicts. And I can't rule it out since he won't rule it out.

ZARROLI: And so for now, he says, Vornado needs to remove itself from the bidding process. Vornado didn't respond to a request for comment, and the Kushner company declined to comment. Jim Zarroli, NPR News.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

4 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

5 coax   

v.哄诱，劝诱，用诱哄得到，诱取

参考例句：

• I had to coax the information out of him.我得用好话套出他掌握的情况。
• He tried to coax the secret from me.他试图哄骗我说出秘方。

6 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。

7 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

8 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

9 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

10 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

11 procurement   

n.采购；获得

参考例句：

• He is in charge of the procurement of materials.他负责物资的采购。
• More and more,human food procurement came to have a dominant effect on their evolution.人类获取食物愈来愈显著地影响到人类的进化。

12 overseen   

v.监督，监视( oversee的过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was overseen stealing the letters. 他被人撞见在偷信件。 来自辞典例句
• It will be overseen by ThomasLi, director of IBM China Research Laboratory. 该实验室由IBM中国研究院院长李实恭(ThomasLi)引导。 来自互联网

13 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

14 murky   

adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗

参考例句：

• She threw it into the river's murky depths.她把它扔进了混浊的河水深处。
• She had a decidedly murky past.她的历史背景令人捉摸不透。