Judge Blocks the FBI Headquarters Move to the Reagan Building and Clears the Path Back to Maryland

U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang on Monday, Aug. 17, blocked the Trump administration from relocating FBI headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, ruling the decision was “not in accordance with law.” A site in Greenbelt, Maryland, had been chosen under the Biden administration; Trump appointees moved last year to reverse it in favor of repurposing the Reagan Building, a few blocks from the bureau’s current home. Chuang barred the administration from moving the FBI there, renovating the building for it, or repurposing the funds. Maryland and Prince George’s County brought the suit.

The dispute is over who controls a federal siting decision that Congress funded and that took more than a decade of competitive review. The ruling treats the reversal not as ordinary agency discretion, and it reaches the money as well as the location by forbidding the repurposing of appropriated funds.

The FBI said the court “has chosen to impermissibly intervene for political reasons” and that the bureau “is mission focused.” Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said the ruling “cleared the path back to Greenbelt,” and Gov. Wes Moore called for construction to begin. No appeal had been announced as of the Associated Press account.