Federal Judge Rules Against Kash Patel and Todd Blanche in FBI Building Move Ruling

Kylie Cooper / REUTERS FBI Director Kash Patel’s bid to keep the bureau’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., has been declared unlawful by a federal judge.

Following a lengthy battle between Maryland and Virginia over replacing the deteriorating J.

Edgar Hoover Building, the General Services Administration selected Greenbelt, Maryland, for the organization’s new home in 2023.

President Donald Trump, 80, scrapped that decision after returning to office in 2025.

His administration proposed moving the bureau into the Ronald Reagan Building, a short walk from its current home.

Maryland and Prince George’s County sued that November.

On Monday, U.S.

District Judge Theodore Chuang ruled that the proposed switch was “not in accordance with law.” He prohibited Patel, 46, and Attorney General Todd Blanche, 52, from relocating the FBI to the Reagan Building or funding renovations there, the Associated Press reported .

The setback marks another pratfall for a director whose error-strewn tenure has earned him the nickname “Keystone Kash,” a reference to the spectacularly incompetent police force from silent-era comedy films.

Chuang, an Obama appointee, concluded in his ruling that Congress had never authorized the Washington plan.

Lawmakers included language in the 2026 Appropriations Act blocking previously appropriated funds from being spent on remodeling the Reagan Building until the FBI produces complete architectural plans.

No plans have been submitted, The Washington Post reported .

The bureau responded with a furious attack on the court.

They told the Daily Beast: “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.