FBI Director Kash Patel says agency will relocate 1,500 agents out of DC

FBI Director Kash Patel previewed his plans to relocate about 1,500 agents out of the law enforcement agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

In an excerpt of an exclusive interview with “Sunday Morning Futures” that will air this Sunday, Patel said the agency is reallocating its workforce around the country by moving those agents out of the J. Edgar Hoover Building, which opened in 1975.

“This FBI is leaving the Hoover building because this building is unsafe for our workforce and 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,” Patel said.

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General view of the J. Edgar Hoover F.B.I. Building in Washington, U.S., March 10, 2019. (Reuters/Mary F. Calvert / Reuters)

“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,” Patel said. “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.”

“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 out into the country to do it,'” Patel added. “That’s what we’re doing in the next three, six, nine months we’re going to do that hard.”

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FBI Director Kash Patel said the agency is planning to leave its longtime headquarters at the J. Edgar Hoover Building. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque / Reuters)

The FBI and the Government Services Administration (GSA) have been looking at options for a new FBI headquarters for more than a decade, including locations near D.C. in Maryland and Virginia.

In late 2023, the GSA chose a site in Greenbelt, Maryland, that could serve as the main headquarters, with the FBI getting a smaller facility in downtown D.C. that could accommodate 750 to 1,000 employees. The selection prompted conflict of interest concerns raised by then-FBI Director Christopher Wray, as well as other issues with whether the site selection criteria were followed.

American flags wave outside the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building in Washington, U.S., Dec. 2, 2020. (Reuters/Tom Brenner / Reuters)

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The inspector general of the GSA issued a report in February that found the GSA’s rationale for increasing the weights of one of the five criteria considered was unjustified, while the report also noted inaccurate cost estimates and a lack of site-specific information in the selection review package. 

The review found no conflict of interest, though it also faulted GSA officials for not maintaining text message records related to discussions of the FBI headquarters project.

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The interview with FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino will air on “Sunday Morning Futures” this Sunday, May 18.