The FBI will leave its D.C. headquarters and relocate 1,500 employees, Director Kash Patel said in an interview that aired Friday morning.
Patel said the FBI will leave the J. Edgar Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Avenue NW because of its condition.
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WATCH HERE“This FBI is leaving the Hoover Building because this building is unsafe for our workforce,” he said on Fox Business.
“We want the American men and women to know, if you’re going to come work at the premier law enforcement agency in the world, we’re going to give you a building that’s commensurate with that, and that’s not this place,” he continued.
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SIGN UP Patel previously told senior officials of his plans to relocate employees, including to Huntsville, Alabama, a source told the Associated Press.
Finding a new home for the FBI has been in the works for more than 15 years. Under President Joe Biden, the federal government selected Greenbelt, Maryland, for the site of a new FBI headquarters in November 2023.
President Donald Trump said in March the agency would remain in D.C. Also in March, the Hoover Building appeared on a list of federal properties that could go up for sale. The list sparked confusion after it was revised, downsized and deleted within 24 hours.
Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a statement on the significance of keeping the FBI headquarters in D.C.
“Having the FBI headquarters in our nation’s capital and near the Department of Justice keeps America safer. The District and our region have many sites where the FBI can fulfill their mission in safe, modern, and secure facilities, and we are ready to help them find both temporary leases and a permanent home,” she said. “A safe and beautiful DC requires a committed federal partner that will keep our Nation’s Capital a symbol of American strength.”
Patel said FBI employees will be distributed across the U.S. but did not immediately share details.
“Look, the FBI is 38,000 when we’re fully manned, which we’re not. In the national capital region in the 50-mile radius around Washington, D.C., there were 11,000 FBI employees. That’s like a third of the workforce. A third of the crime doesn’t happen here. So, we’re taking 1,500 of those folks and moving them out,” he said.
“Every state’s getting a plus-up. And I think when we do things like that, we inspire folks in America to become intel analysts and agents and say, ‘We want to go work at the FBI because we want to go fight violent crime and we want to get sent down into the country to do it.’ And that’s what we’re doing in the next three, six, nine months. We’re going to do that hard,” he said.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner called for additional support for the FBI.
"What the FBI needs right now is stability and support. What it doesn’t need is some half-baked effort that will create additional barriers for agents and disrupt collaboration with the rest of our Intelligence Community,” he said in a statement.
Maryland Rep. Glenn Ivey told News4 he thinks moving some FBI employees could have benefits.
“If the FBI agents are going to work with the state and local law enforcement, you could have a multiplier effect that helps to reduce crime and other things like that,” he said.
Ivey is still pushing for the agency to build on the site in Greenbelt.
“Let’s fast-track the move to get that built out. It’s in the best interest of the FBI and the nation,” he said.
The FBI said they had no immediate comment.
Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.
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