Maryland Sues Trump Administration Over FBI Headquarters Reversal

As the Trump administration advances a plan to move the FBI's headquarters to another building in D.C., the state and county where the agency had been slated to move are fighting back. 

Maryland and Prince George’s County have filed a lawsuit against the administration, alleging that it is undertaking illegal actions in backing out of the 2023 decision to build a new headquarters in Greenbelt, elected officials announced Thursday.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown announced the lawsuit at a press conference Thursday at the Wayne K. Curry County Administration Building. He was joined by Gov. Wes Moore and Prince George’s County Executive Aisha Braveboy, as well as Maryland congressional representatives. 

“What we're really seeing is an administration that doesn't like the decision Congress made, so they're trying to undo it without going back to Congress,” Brown said. “That violates federal law. It violates congressional directives. It harms Marylanders who were promised jobs and opportunities.”

Brown said the lawsuit alleges the administration is attempting to unlawfully transfer more than $1B that was already designated for the Greenbelt headquarters, that it violated explicit congressional directives and ignored federal requirements to consult with state and local governments, and that it “acted arbitrarily and capriciously by abandoning years of careful planning without explanation or justification.”

“We won the project fairly, and we will not let this administration steal jobs and opportunities from Prince George's County and Maryland,” he said.

In July, the FBI announced that it would not be moving to Greenbelt — a plan that had been announced under the Biden administration in November 2023. 

Instead, it said it would stay in D.C., moving to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, a few blocks away from its longtime headquarters in the J. Edgar Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Reagan Building was formerly occupied by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the Trump administration shut down and folded into the State Department.

At the press conference, Moore argued that the decision to move the FBI to the Reagan Building is not only illegal but “lacks common sense” and will “put public servants in jeopardy” due to the fact that it’s “too small and too exposed.” 

“Greenbelt is the best home for the FBI, for their mission, for their agents, for their future, and it's the result of close analysis and a fair process,” Moore said. 

“So if Donald Trump thinks that we are going to roll over when he tries to make life worse for our law enforcement, he better think twice, and we'll see him in court,” he added.

Late last month, a Senate committee authorized new funding for renovations, repair and fit-out of a 2.6M SF space poised to house around 6,000 agents at the building, a project estimated to cost $1.5B, the Washington Business Journal reported. 

The cost to build out a new 2.1M SF FBI headquarters in Greenbelt would have been around $3.5B.

In July’s announcement that the agency would be staying in D.C., FBI Director Kash Patel said the choice “is the most cost effective and resource efficient way to carry out our mission to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution.”

During Thursday’s press conference, Brown said that in addition to the more than $1.1B Congress had already appropriated for the project, the state and county made “extraordinary commitments” — $250M from Maryland for transportation infrastructure improvements and $100M from Prince George’s County. 

“We did this because we expected our communities would benefit from high-paying jobs and transformative economic development opportunities,” Brown said. “Marylanders were counting on this project. Prince George's County was counting on this project. Local businesses were counting on this project.”

Braveboy, who was elected to the county executive seat this summer, spoke about the benefits that other jurisdictions have seen from federal headquarters locations, adding that it was Prince George’s time for that economic impact. 

While she said the county has many battles to pick from right now, she said this one is “worth fighting.”

“It doesn't get any bigger than this, and we're not going to give something up that is this important without a fight, especially when we won this fair and square,” she said.