A U.S. judge on Monday blocked plans to move the FBI’s headquarters to a federal office building in Washington, finding that President Donald Trump’s administration illegally tossed out a previously approved plan to build a new facility in Maryland.
The ruling is the latest development in a yearslong battle over where to house the main office for the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. A site in Greenbelt, Maryland, was picked during former President Joe Biden’s administration, but Trump appointees sought to reverse that decision last year in favor of repurposing the Ronald Reagan Building, a federal office complex a few blocks from the FBI’s existing headquarters.
U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang ruled that the move was “not in accordance with law” and blocked the Trump administration from moving the FBI to the Reagan building, renovating it for the FBI, or repurposing funds.
The Reactions
“This is not the first time courts have tried to undermine the administration in its goal to make government more cost-effective for American taxpayers,” the FBI said in a statement. “The court has chosen to impermissibly intervene for political reasons.”
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said: “Maryland and Prince George’s County committed more than a decade of work to earn the FBI headquarters and pledged hundreds of millions of dollars. By blocking the Trump Administration’s unlawful attempt to move the FBI to the Reagan Building and divert the funds Congress set aside for this project, the Court has cleared the path back to Greenbelt.”
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said: “Now it is time to stop the games and get to work building the world-class FBI headquarters that our public servants deserve, where it belongs: in Prince George’s County, Maryland.”
The Background
The FBI’s current Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, was dedicated in 1975. Proponents of moving the headquarters have said the brutalist-style building, where nets surround the facility to protect pedestrians from falling debris, has fallen into disrepair.
The Maryland location was selected over nearby Virginia following an intense competition between the two states. The suit was brought by the state of Maryland and Prince George’s County.
The Bottom Line
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s plan to move the FBI headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, ruling that the administration illegally scrapped a previously approved plan for a new facility in Greenbelt, Maryland. The ruling is a victory for Maryland officials who fought to keep the headquarters in their state. The FBI’s current J. Edgar Hoover Building has fallen into disrepair, and the location has been a subject of intense competition between Maryland and Virginia.
