US judge blocks Trump administration’s plan to scrap FBI headquarters move to Maryland

InternationalUS judge blocks Trump administration's plan to scrap FBI headquarters move to MarylandBy Reuters -Aug 18, 2026Add ARY News on GoogleAAResizeA federal judge on Monday blocked a Trump administration plan to relocate the new FBI ‌headquarters to Washington, D.C., rather than in nearby Maryland, which had been picked in 2023 to host the building. U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang sided with the Democratic-led state of Maryland and Prince George’s County in ruling that the administration had unlawfully scrapped a plan to construct a new FBI headquarters in ​Greenbelt, Maryland, and diverted money approved by Congress for that project to an alternate location, the Ronald Reagan ​Building in Washington. The judge said the selection of Ronald Reagan Building violated measures passed by Congress in ⁠2022 and 2023 that required the General Services Administration to pick from one of three short-listed sites outside of Washington. “Notably, ​the text provides no conditions under which the selection could be unilaterally rescinded or switched to a nonconforming site,” wrote Chuang, ​an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama. He said that because the administration lacked authority to pick the Ronald Reagan Building to serve as the new FBI headquarters, it likewise could not legally divert $555 million of funding approved by Congress to prepare the site for that purpose. Maryland Attorney General Anthony ​Brown, a Democrat, in a statement said the ruling cleared the way for the headquarters project to return to Greenbelt. “Congress made ​a promise,” he said. “The Trump administration tried to break it. Now, the jobs, investment, and opportunity Marylanders deserve are within reach.” “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,” an FBI spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters. “The court has chosen to impermissibly intervene for political re...