Biden’s Director of National Intelligence Dropped $12K on Custom ‘Executive’ Chairs

Avril Haines’s office also spent $3K on new art for office, documents show

Patrick Hauf • January 20, 2022 5:00 am

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) spent an exorbitant amount of taxpayer money on “executive furniture” for agency head Avril Haines, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Weeks after Haines was confirmed as Director of National Intelligence, her office spent $12,134 on four office chairs, according to a government procurement order obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. An ODNI employee asked in the order for “appropriate executive furniture that meets the level of the position in which they are charged with.” ODNI said it needed the chairs by April 1, 2021.

The procurement order shows that Haines’s office ordered versions of furniture company Haworth’s Zody chair, which is customizable and can sell for a wide range of prices depending on the selected configuration. According to the document, each of the chairs cost $2,759 before delivery and labor fees, which brought the total to $3,033 per chair.

It is unclear how exactly Haines’s office purchased a chair that expensive. Using Haworth’s 2021 price list, it is possible to customize a chair that costs up to $3,000 by adding on a variety of features including lumbar adjustments, a “PAL back system,” 4D arms, and an “upholstered back jacket.” ODNI did not respond to requests for comment on the chairs’ specifications.

Haines is the latest government official to drop taxpayer dollars on swanky goods. The Free Beacon reported in October that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack spent nearly $2,000 on an uninspiring set of drapes. Under former president Barack Obama, the State Department spent $52,000 on curtains for the Manhattan residence of the ambassador to the United Nations. The New York Times in 2017 slammed then-secretary of housing and urban development Ben Carson’s office for purchasing a $31,000 dining room set.

ODNI placed its chair order through the General Services Administration, which assists with the operations of federal agencies. Haworth has a GSA contract that includes a 60 percent discount on the Zody chair. The GSA catalog lists the Zody chair at $494. Federal agencies are encouraged but not required to ensure their orders qualify for discounts. The GSA did not respond to requests for comment.

A Haworth spokeswoman told the Free Beacon that the ODNI order fell “within GSA requirements,” but said it was unable to discuss specifics. “We do not release documentation without approval from the customer,” a company spokeswoman said.

The most expensive office chair available from office furniture giant Staples costs less than $1,000.

It is unclear whether Haines, a 52-year-old woman with no documented back problems, was directly involved in the orders, as all names on the documents are redacted. It is also unclear how much spinal damage has been done to ODNI employees forced to sit in non-executive office chairs.

Haines’s office also spent more than $3,000 for a seven-piece art installation that features photos of D.C. landmarks. The set includes a photo of the Capitol taken by Valeriy Tourchin, a Russian native known as “Black Russian.” According to his website, Tourchin earned the nickname “for having mostly black friends and (as my friends saying) ‘shooting black people.'”