A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s plan to move the FBI’s headquarters across town in Washington, DC, instead of shifting the agency to a Maryland location that was picked in 2023.
Reuters reports US District Judge Theodore Chuang, an Obama appointee, ruled the administration’s decision to move the FBI into the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington violated Biden-era congressional measures that required the General Services Administration to choose from three sites outside of the nation’s capital. A site in Greenbelt, Maryland, was selected and Congress approved funding for the relocation from the agency’s longtime home in the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington.
“Notably, the text provides no conditions under which the selection could be unilaterally rescinded or switched to a nonconforming site,” wrote Chuang in his ruling, adding that the administration could not legally divert the $555 million in congressionally approved funding for a move to the Ronald Reagan Building.
An FBI spokesperson responded to the ruling with a statement that said, “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 court has chosen to impermissibly intervene for political reasons.”
The FBI spokesperson added the agency “will continue the best course of action to meet the needs of law enforcement.”
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