Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, has revealed that the agency is moving away from its Washington, DC headquarters. In a discussion with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business, which is expected to air in full on Sunday, Patel confirmed that the FBI has departed from the J. Edgar Hoover Building.
Patel stated that the decision to announce this was not premeditated. He emphasized, “This FBI is away from the Hoover building. This building is not safe for our workforce.” Deputy Director Dan Bongino expressed frustration, remarking, “I gave up on the big nuggets there!”
Patel continued, “We want American men and women to know if you work for the best law enforcement agencies in the world, we give you a building worthy of it. It’s not this place.” However, he did not specify where their new headquarters would be located.
In addition, he mentioned that the FBI plans to relocate many of its employees outside of Washington, DC. “Look, the FBI is 38,000 when it’s fully staffed, but that’s not the case right now,” he noted. “In a 50-mile radius around Washington, DC, there are 11,000 FBI employees, which is like a third of the workforce. A third of crime doesn’t happen here.”
Previously, Patel had suggested that shutting down the DC headquarters might allow the FBI to focus more effectively on its mission to catch criminals. “I closed the FBI Hoover building on the first day and said, ‘We will reopen as a museum in the deep state,'” he remarked in 2024. He further added, “I’ll take 7,000 employees who work in that building and send them all across America to chase off criminals.”
The Hoover Building has served as the FBI’s headquarters since 1974 and was named in honor of J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI’s first official director. It was officially named just two days after Hoover’s death in 1972 under President Richard Nixon.
