Kash Patel says FBI leaving Hoover Building, staying in D.C.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington is closing, with the bureau moving to another D.C. site.

Mr. Patel, in making the announcement Friday, said on social media, “After more than 20 years of failed attempts, we finalized a plan to permanently close the FBI’s Hoover headquarters and move the workforce into a safe, modern facility.”

He added, “Working directly with President Trump and Congress, we accomplished what no one else could. When we arrived, taxpayers were about to be on the hook for nearly $5 billion for a new headquarters that wouldn’t open until 2035.”

Instead, he said, the bureau will move to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center on Pennsylvania Avenue, “saving billions and allowing the transition to begin immediately with required safety and infrastructure upgrades already underway.

“Once complete, most of the HQ FBI workforce will move in, and the rest are continuing in our ongoing push to put more manpower in the field, where they will remain. This decision puts resources where they belong: defending the homeland, crushing violent crime, and protecting national security. It delivers better tools for today’s FBI workforce at a fraction of the cost.”

Mr. Patel didn’t say exactly when the closure and move will occur.

Maryland leaders last month sued the Trump administration for reneging on plans to relocate the FBI’s new headquarters in Prince George’s County and keeping the headquarters in the District.

The lawsuit argues that the White House unlawfully plans to take the congressionally appropriated funds for the planned site in Greenbelt and stay in D.C.

“The problem with the current FBI building is that it’s too old, too small, and too exposed. So what does the president do? He moves the FBI to another building that is too old, too small, and too exposed,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, said in a statement.

“Trump’s actions aren’t just illegal, they lack common sense. And his foolishness will put law enforcement in jeopardy. Greenbelt has been, and still is, the best home for the FBI,” he continued.

The General Services Administration selected Greenbelt as the future site of the FBI’s headquarters in 2023, ending a competitive, yearslong process between leaders in the Virginia and Maryland suburbs vying for the agency’s new home. 

Mr. Trump said in July that he preferred the FBI stay in the city.

“They were going to build an FBI headquarters three hours away in Maryland, a liberal state,” Mr. Trump said at the time. “We’re going to stop it, not going to let that happen. We’re going to build another big FBI building right where it is.”