A federal judge in Maryland blocked the Trump administration’s plan to relocate the FBI’s proposed headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., after the Biden administration had announced a plan in 2023 to move the headquarters to Greenbelt, Maryland.

In July 2025, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the bureau would instead relocate a few blocks away, stating that the Reagan Building offered “the most cost-effective and resource-efficient way to carry out our mission.” 

Last November, the state of Maryland sued Patel and the bureau, alleging that the Trump administration had attempted to “unlawfully sabotage” the 2023 plan and illegally divert funding that Congress had designated for the plan — over $323 million — away from it.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang sided with Maryland, writing in a 47-page opinion that the Trump administration’s move to divert the funding and cancel the plan was “arbitrary and capricious and not in accordance with law,” in addition to other violations of federal law.

The FBI has been headquartered in downtown Washington at the J. Edgar Hoover Building since 1975, but structural problems have plagued it for the last 20 years. 

Last year, the Trump administration and the General Services Administration settled on the Reagan Building, which had been home to the U.S. Agency for International Development until 2025, when the Trump administration consolidated USAID into the State Department and allowed Customs and Border Protection to take over the building’s lease.

President Trump has criticized the move, calling Maryland a “liberal state” in a speech at the Justice Department last year. 

During his first term, Mr. Trump had contemplated moving the FBI, but he abandoned a plan that would have moved it to one of three locations in Maryland or Virginia. He proposed a smaller headquarters in Washington to replace the Hoover building.

But the GSA, during the Biden administration, chose the Greenbelt site, ending a 15-year debate on whether the headquarters should be relocated. 

In a statement, Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown said, “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 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.