Judge Blocks FBI HQ Move to DC Office  08/18 06:26

   

   (AP) -- A U.S. judge on Monday blocked plans to move the FBI's headquarters 
to a federal office building in Washington, finding that President Donald 
Trump's administration illegally tossed out a previously approved plan to build 
a new facility nearby in Maryland.

   The ruling is the latest development in a yearslong battle over where to 
house the main office for the nation's premier law enforcement agency. A site 
in Greenbelt, Maryland, was picked during former President Joe Biden's 
administration, but Trump appointees sought to reverse that decision last year 
in favor of repurposing the Ronald Reagan Building, a federal office complex a 
few blocks from the FBI's existing headquarters.

   U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang, an appointee of President Barack 
Obama, ruled that the move was " not in accordance with law," and blocked the 
Trump administration from moving the FBI to the Reagan building, renovating it 
for the FBI or repurposing funds.

   "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."

   The suit was brought by the state of Maryland and Prince George's County.

   "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," 
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement. "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."

   Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, also a Democrat, said, "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."

   The FBI's current Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover 
Building, was dedicated in 1975. Proponents of moving the headquarters have 
said the brutalist-style building, where nets surround the facility to protect 
pedestrians from falling debris, has fallen into disrepair.

   The Maryland location was selected over nearby Virginia following an intense 
competition between the two states.