FEMA Chief Brock Long Could Face Federal Charges

Investigators want to know if he misused taxpayer money

By Josh Gardner, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 17, 2018 6:30 PM CDT

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FEMA Chief Probe Now in The Hands of Federal Prosecutors — FEMA Administrator Brock Long speaks during a news conference at the National Hurricane Center. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

A probe into President Trump's FEMA chief has been referred to prosecutors. The Wall Street Journal reports that it's now up to them to decide whether federal criminal charges will be brought against Brock Long, who potentially broke "multiple laws" when he and two officials took taxpayer-funded trips to his North Carolina home. As Hurricane Florence closed in on US soil Thursday, Politico first reported that Long had become the focus of a Department of Homeland Security inspector general investigation about a caravan of federal workers he took with him multiple times to the city of Hickory, some 800 miles round-trip from Washington.

Long has reportedly spent 150 days of weekends and days off in North Carolina since he was hired in 2017. DHS attorneys warned him last fall that the trips were illegal. After the investigation was made public, Long said he had no intention of stepping down. "I'm here to serve my country every day. That's all I do," he said, per the AP. "And when it's over, whenever it ends, I'm ready to go back home, love my family." Long said he plans to fully cooperate with the investigation.

(More Brock Long stories.)

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