Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, who sued the Trump administration to stop the move, has said the ruling will prevent his state from throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars in already-committed funds.
A U.S. judge on Monday issued an order enjoining the Trump administration from moving the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s main headquarters into a repurposed building in Washington, D.C.
According to PBS, the ruling is the latest development in a years-long battle over where the agency should be headquartered. Several years ago, the outgoing Biden administration selected a new site in Greenbelt, Maryland, just outside of the nation’s capital. However, after Trump’s second term began, the government pushed back on the proposal, saying it would be better if the FBI moved into the old Ronald Reagan Building, located several blocks away from the Bureau’s current site.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang found that the Trump administration’s proposal was not made “in accordance with law.” As part of his order, Chuang said that neither can funds be repurposed nor the Roanld Reagan Building be renovated for use by the FBI.
“This is not the first time courts have tried to undermine the administration in its goal to make government more cost-effective for American taxpayers,” the FBI said in a statement. “The court has chosen to impermissibly intervene for political reasons. This FBI is mission-focused and will continue the best course of action to meet the needs of law enforcement.”
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, who sued the Trump administration to stop the move, has said the ruling will prevent his state from wasting hundreds of millions of dollars in already-committed funds.
“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,” Brown said. “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.”
In a related statement, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said that the ruling lets the state resume its focus on building a better headquarters for the FBI.
“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,” Moore said.
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