The FBI director, Kash Patel, said the law enforcement agency’s sprawling but ageing J Edgar Hoover building in Washington DC will be closed down and the agency will move into already existing offices elsewhere.
Some FBI workers will report to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in the US capital to occupy the former offices of the US Agency for International Development, which was controversially dismantled by the Trump administration earlier this year.
“After more than 20 years of failed attempts, we finalized a plan to permanently close the FBI’s Hoover headquarters and move the workforce into a safe, modern facility,” Patel posted to social media site X. “The Hoover Building will be shut down permanently.”
Patel added: “This decision puts resources where they belong: defending the homeland, crushing violent crime, and protecting national security. It delivers better tools for today’s FBI workforce at a fraction of the cost.”
In November, leaders in Maryland sued the Trump administration after it scrapped plans to move the bureau’s headquarters to the state. The lawsuit pointed out that Congress had already appropriated funds for the relocation.
The brutalist J Edgar Hoover building was designed in the 1960s, when it was also conceived and constructed. It was often criticized for breaking with the style of other federal buildings. Former FBI head Hoover himself once called it “the greatest monstrosity ever constructed in the history of Washington.”
