Federal Judge Halts Trump Administration’s Plan to Relocate FBI Headquarters to Reagan Building

A federal judge on Monday issued an injunction preventing the Trump administration from relocating the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang determined that the plan violated applicable law and represented an illegal reversal of a decision made under the Biden administration.

The dispute centers on a site selection process spanning more than a decade. Former President Joe Biden’s administration had designated Greenbelt, Maryland as the location for a newly constructed FBI headquarters facility, but Trump appointees moved to abandon that decision in favor of converting the Reagan Building, a federal office structure located several blocks from the FBI’s existing headquarters.

Judge Chuang, an Obama appointee, ruled the relocation scheme “not in accordance with law” and barred the administration from executing the move, conducting renovations at the Reagan Building, or redirecting funds that Congress had earmarked for the Maryland project. The Justice Department and FBI declined immediate comment on the ruling.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, speaking on behalf of the state and Prince George’s County—the parties who filed the lawsuit—characterized the decision as vindication. “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,” Brown said in a statement, adding that the court ruling “has cleared the path back to Greenbelt.”

The FBI’s current facility, the J. Edgar Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Avenue, opened in 1975. Advocates for relocation have noted the brutalist structure’s deteriorating condition, pointing to protective netting installed around the building to catch falling debris as evidence of needed repairs.