A federal judge in Maryland has halted the Trump administration’s plan to move the FBI’s proposed headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. This decision follows the Biden administration’s 2023 announcement of a plan to relocate the headquarters to Greenbelt, Maryland.
In July 2025, FBI Director Kash Patel declared that the agency would relocate just blocks away, citing the Reagan Building as a cost-effective and efficient option. However, Maryland filed a lawsuit against Patel and the FBI, accusing the Trump administration of unlawfully undermining the 2023 plan. The lawsuit claimed that the administration had illegally diverted over $323 million allocated by Congress for the original plan.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang ruled in favor of Maryland, stating in a 47-page opinion that the Trump administration’s actions to cancel the plan and redirect funding were both “arbitrary and capricious and not in accordance with law,” among other federal law violations.
The FBI, headquartered at the J. Edgar Hoover Building since 1975, has faced structural issues over the past two decades. Last year, the Trump administration, along with the General Services Administration (GSA), settled on the Reagan Building, which had been occupied by the U.S. Agency for International Development until it was consolidated into the State Department in 2025, allowing Customs and Border Protection to assume the lease.
President Trump previously criticized the relocation to Maryland, labeling it a “liberal state” during a Justice Department address last year. During his first term, Trump considered moving the FBI but ultimately dismissed plans for relocation to Maryland or Virginia. Instead, he proposed a smaller headquarters in Washington to replace the Hoover Building.
In contrast, the GSA under the Biden administration selected Greenbelt, ending a 15-year debate on the headquarters’ relocation. Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown lauded the court’s decision, stating, “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.”
The FBI has yet to issue a response to this ruling.