Frozen copy retrieved 2026-08-18T13:56:00Z for audit 2026-08-18T14-08-31Z. Original URL: https://www.newsmax.com/us/judge-block-trump-administration/2026/08/17/id/1266398/. The Stochastic Parrot does not host or redistribute; this snapshot exists solely so that quoted spans remain verifiable if the original page changes. Character offsets below index into this plain text; highlighted spans are the quotes cited in the audit.

Judge Blocks Trump's Plan to Keep FBI Headquarters in Washington

Newsmax · back to the audit
A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from abandoning a planned new FBI headquarters in Maryland and relocating the bureau's headquarters to a site in Washington, D.C.

Reuters reported that the ruling prevents the administration from halting the long-running project to build a new FBI headquarters in Greenbelt, Maryland, a site that had been selected by the federal government in 2023.

The General Services Administration selected a 61-acre site in Greenbelt in November 2023 after evaluating competing locations in Maryland and Virginia, saying the site offered the best overall combination of security, transportation access, and development potential.

The Trump administration reversed course after President Donald Trump returned to office, with Trump saying in March 2025 that he wanted to keep the FBI headquarters in Washington rather than move it to Maryland.

Trump argued that the bureau should remain close to the Justice Department and other federal law enforcement agencies in the nation's capital.

The administration subsequently selected the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in downtown Washington as the FBI's future headquarters location instead of proceeding with the Greenbelt campus.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown and Prince George's County sued the Trump administration in November 2025, arguing that federal officials had unlawfully diverted the headquarters project away from the site selected through the GSA's established process.

Monday's ruling represents a victory for Maryland and Prince George's County, which had argued that the federal government could not lawfully abandon the Greenbelt project.

The ruling does not mean the FBI will immediately move into a new Maryland headquarters, and additional legal and administrative steps could still affect the project's ultimate timetable.

The case also leaves unresolved what will happen to the administration's plans for the Ronald Reagan Building, which officials had selected as an alternative headquarters site in 2025.

The FBI has not yet provided a timetable for implementing the Maryland project following Monday's ruling, and the administration could appeal the decision.