FILE --
Dignitaries cut a ribbon to mark the
dedication of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's new $194 million
South Florida field office, Friday,
April 10, 2015, in Miramar, Fla. The
office is named for agents Benjamin
P. Grogan and Jerry L. Dove, who
were killed in an April 11, 1986,
shootout with heavily armed bank
robbers south of Miami. Five other
FBI agents were wounded in what
remains the bureau's bloodiest
single day. Three survivors attended
Friday's ceremony. From left, FBI
Director James Comey, U.S. Rep.
Frederica Wilson, acting GSA
Administrator Denise Roth, U.S. Rep.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Miramar,
Fla. Mayor Wayne Messam, and George
Piro, Special Agent in Charge, FBI
Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, Pool)
FACT
CHECK:
John
Kelly
distorts
congresswoman’s
actions
Terry
Spencer
and
Calvin
Woodward,
Associated
Press
4
mins
read
FORT
LAUDERDALE,
Fla. -
President
Donald
Trump’s
chief of
staff
distorted
the
facts
when he
accused
a
“selfish”
Florida
Rep.
Frederica
Wilson
of
grandstanding
at a
building
dedication
in the
memory
of two
slain
FBI
agents
in 2015.
John
Kelly
said she
stunned
the
audience
at the
somber
ceremony
by
recounting
how she
had been
the
driving
force
behind
raising
money
for the
building,
the
FBI’s
South
Florida
headquarters.
But a
video of
her
remarks
at the
dedication
shows
she
never
took
credit
for
getting
the
government
to come
up with
the
money
for the
project.
Indeed,
the
building
was
approved
several
years
before
she
entered
Congress.
The
long-ago
episode
has
become
caught
up in a
swirl of
recriminations,
sparked
days ago
when
Trump
made an
empty
boast
that he
surpassed
previous
presidents
in
reaching
out to
families
of the
fallen.
One such
outreach
backfired,
leaving
a family
feeling
that
their
late
son,
Sgt. La
David
Johnson,
was
disrespected
by Trump
in a
phone
conversation
with his
widow,
according
to the
aunt who
raised
him.
In
addition,
both
Trump
and
Kelly
implied
nefarious
motives
by
Wilson
in
listening
to that
call —
“SECRETLY,”
as Trump
put it
in a
tweet.
Trump
called
while
Wilson
was in
the car
with the
widow —
a friend
— and
other
family
members,
and the
call was
put on
speakerphone.
White
House’s
Sarah
Huckabee
Sanders
is
continuing
to
criticize
a Dem.
Congresswoman
who said
the
president
made
insensitive
comments
to the
widow of
a Green
Beret
killed
in
Niger.
“As we
say in
the
south:
All hat,
no
cattle,”
she said
Friday.
(Oct.
20)
In
that
circumstance,
the limo
driver
listened
in, too
— there
was no
escaping
it.
On
Thursday,
flush
with
fury,
Kelly
spoke
about
the
building
dedication
and more
as he
challenged
Wilson’s
criticisms
of
Trump’s
behavior
on the
phone
with
Myeshia
Johnson.
Her
husband
was one
of U.S.
four
soldiers
killed
in Niger
early
this
month.
A look
at
Kelly’s
comments
and
Trump’s
tweet:
KELLY:
“And a
congresswoman
stood
up, and
in a
long
tradition
of empty
barrels
making
the most
noise,
stood up
there in
all of
that and
talked
about
how she
was
instrumental
in
getting
the
funding
for that
building,
and how
she took
care of
her
constituents
because
she got
the
money,
and she
just
called
up
President
Obama,
and on
that
phone
call, he
gave the
money,
the $20
million,
to build
the
building,
and she
sat
down.
And we
were
stunned,
stunned
that
she’d
done it.
Even for
someone
that is
that
empty a
barrel,
we were
stunned.”
THE
FACTS:
Kelly’s
recollection
is
incorrect.
In her
nine-minute
speech
at the
April
10,
2015,
dedication
ceremony,
a video
of which
was
found by
the
South
Florida
Sun-Sentinel,
Wilson
never
mentions
the
building’s
financing.
She
did,
though,
spend up
to three
minutes
talking
about an
effort
she did
lead —
to have
the
building
named
after
the
special
agents,
Ben
Grogan
and
Jerry
Dove,
who were
killed
in a
1986 gun
battle
in
Miami.
She
recounted
how she
was
asked by
the FBI
four
weeks
earlier
to
expedite
a bill
through
Congress
to name
the
building
after
Grogan
and
Dove.
She said
the
process
normally
takes
eight
months
to a
year.
“I
went
into
attack
mode,”
she told
the
audience.
She said
she
approached
then-Speaker
John
Boehner,
telling
him “the
FBI
needs
your
help and
our
country
needs
your
help.”
She said
Boehner
got the
bill to
the
House
floor
for a
vote in
two
days.
She said
she then
rushed
the bill
to
Florida
Sens.
Bill
Nelson
and
Marco
Rubio,
who got
the bill
passed
by that
chamber
two days
later.
President
Barack
Obama
signed
the bill
three
days
before
the
dedication
ceremony.
The
audience
responded
with
loud
applause.
“It’s a
miracle
but it
speaks
to the
respect
that our
Congress
has for
the
Federal
Bureau
of
Investigation,”
she
said.
She
then
asked
all
first
responders
to stand
so they
could
receive
applause.
Wilson
then
recited
the
biographies
of
agents
Grogan
and Dove
and
detailed
the gun
battle
in which
they
were
killed
and five
other
agents
wounded.
After
the
video
emerged,
the
White
House
tried to
amend
Kelly’s
complaint.
Trump
spokeswoman
Sarah
Huckabee
Sanders
said
Kelly
was
stunned
that the
Democratic
congresswoman
talked
about
“her own
actions
in
Congress”
at the
event,
glossing
over Ke;;y’s
erroneous
claim
that
Wilson
had
bragged
about
raising
the
money.
___
KELLY:
“It
stuns me
that a
member
of
Congress
would
have
listened
in on
that
conversation.
Absolutely
stuns
me. And
I
thought
at least
that was
sacred.”
TRUMP:
“The
Fake
News is
going
crazy
with
wacky
Congresswoman
Wilson(D),
who was
SECRETLY
on a
very
personal
call,
and gave
a total
lie on
content!”
THE
FACTS:
Kelly
also
listened
in on
what
Trump
called a
“very
personal
call.”
So did
other
people
in the
White
House.
“There
were
several
people
in the
room
from the
administration
that
were on
the
call,
including
the
chief of
staff,
General
John
Kelly,”
Sanders
confirmed
this
week.
At
the
other
end,
Trump’s
call
came
when the
family
was in a
limousine
at or en
route to
Miami
International
Airport
to meet
Johnson’s
casket.
The
slain
soldier’s
aunt and
uncle,
Richard
Johnson
and
Cowanda
Jones-Johnson,
who
raised
him as
parents,
were in
the car.
So was
Johnson’s
wife and
the
Democratic
congresswoman.
Wilson
knew
Sgt.
Johnson
as a
member
of her
5000
Role
Models
of
Excellence
Project,
founded
to help
minority
boys
find
success
in life.
She
said in
TV
interviews
she
wasn’t
secretly
listening
in —
everyone
in the
car
heard —
and in
fact
wanted
to get
on the
call and
“curse
him out”
but was
not
given
the
phone.
A
president’s
phone
calls to
bereaved
military
families
are
generally
not made
public,
but
that’s
not to
say
anyone
is sworn
to
secrecy.
Natasha
De
Alencar,
widow of
Army
Staff
Sgt.
Mark De
Alencar,
released
video of
her
conversation
with
Trump,
which
she
found
comforting.
The
video
has been
playing
on CNN
and the
White
House
has not
complained
publicly.
___
Woodward
reported
from
Washington.
Find AP
Fact
Checks
at
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