FBI's Patel: I'm Closing Famous DC Headquarters

The iconic J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building will be shut and 1,500 agents and other employees moved out of Washington, DC, and scattered about the country, agency Director Kash Patel said Friday. "This FBI is leaving the Hoover Building because this building is unsafe for our workforce," Patel said in making the announcement during an interview on Fox News, WRC reports. Congress and past directors have said the FBI needs to move out because of the building's condition, per USA Today, and the government search for a new headquarters has been fitful.

About 11,000 of the FBI's roughly 38,000 employees are based with 50 miles of Washington, Patel said. "It's like a third of the workforce. A third of the crime doesn't happen here," he said, adding, "Every state's getting a plus up." In March, President Trump said the FBI would stay in DC. But the same month, its building was included on a list of federal properties that could be sold. Confusion followed when the list was revised and deleted with 24 hours, per WRC. "But 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," Patel said, "and that's not this place." (More FBI stories.)