Judge rules FBI can’t abandon Biden-era plan to relocate headquarters to Maryland

By Kaanita Iyer, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from abandoning a Biden-era plan to relocate the FBI headquarters to suburban Maryland.

The FBI and the General Services Administration had announced plans in July 2025 to move the agency’s headquarters from the J. Edgar Hoover building in downtown Washington, DC, to the Ronald Reagan Building blocks away — scrapping GSA’s 2023 selection of a site in Greenbelt, Maryland.

But Judge Theodore Chuang said in his ruling Monday that the Trump administration’s move exceeded the authority of the FBI and GSA.

Chuang, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, also agreed with Prince George’s County and the state of Maryland — which sued in November — that the FBI’s reprogramming of $555 million toward the Reagan building move, which included $323 million that was appropriated by Congress for the Greenbelt project, was “arbitrary and capricious” and not in accordance with law.

While the Hoover building has long been in need of drastic repairs, the question of where to move the FBI has been a drawn-out political fight. The 2023 selection of Greenbelt was nearly 15 years in the making, Chuang said in his ruling.

The Reagan building was home to the now-defunct US Agency for International Development. It also houses other agencies, including US Customs and Border Protection.

In his ruling, the judge also considered the economic impact to Prince George’s County and the status of the FBI’s move to the Reagan building.

“[I]f the Reagan Building project moves forward, Plaintiffs will lose the opportunity to have the substantial economic benefits that would have a positive impact not just on individual private parties, but on the community in Prince George’s County,” Chuang wrote. “As for Defendants, they are still at the beginning stages of moving the FBI to the Reagan Building … so the immediate impact of an injunction of Defendants would be limited.”

A GSA spokesperson said in a statement to CNN that the judge was making a “political decision designed to undermine” the president.

“GSA will not pursue an inferior approach in cost, speed, and value,” the spokesperson added, saying it will “ensure its agency partners, including the FBI, have workspaces to best accomplish their missions on behalf of the American people.”

A spokesperson for the FBI said, “The court has chosen to impermissibly intervene for political reasons.”

CNN has also reached out to the Justice Department for comment.

Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore celebrated the ruling, saying in a statement on Monday, “President Trump tried to take from Maryland what Maryland had already won. He failed.”

“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,” he added.

Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump vowed to stop the FBI headquarters from moving to “a liberal state.”

“We’re going to stop it. Not going to let that happen,” said Trump during a March 2025 speech at the Department of Justice.

The Trump administration argued in 2025 that the Greenbelt project “would have cost the taxpayers billions of dollars and taken years to construct.” FBI Director Kash Patel said that moving the headquarters to the Reagan building “is the most cost effective and resource efficient way to carry out our mission to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Holmes Lybrand and Andy Rose contributed to this report.