Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel said he was shutting down the bureau’s offices in Washington, D.C., and relocating 1,500 FBI employees to other offices.
Patel made the announcement during an interview with Maria Bartiromo on the “Sunday Morning Futures” show. He explained in a released preview video that having so much of the bureau’s workforce in the capital did not make sense.
‘When we do things like that, we inspire folks in America to become intel analysts and agents and say we want to work at the FBI because we want to fight violent crime.’
“This FBI is leaving the Hoover Building because this building is unsafe for our workforce,” said Patel.
The iconic headquarters of the FBI was first proposed in 1939, but the construction and approval were delayed for many decades. The first employees moved to the completed building in 1974 and the last employees moved in 1977. President Richard Nixon named the building after J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI, after his death in 1970.
“The FBI is 38,000 when we are fully manned, which we are 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,” Patel concluded.
“So we are taking 1,500 of those folks and moving them out. Every state is getting a plus-up,” he added. “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 work at the FBI because we want to fight violent crime, and we want to be sent out into the country to do it.'”
He said that he hadn’t planned on making the announcement on the show and added that the move would be implemented over the next three to nine months.
“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,” Patel concluded, “we’re going to give you a building that’s commensurate with that, and that’s not this place.”
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Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser with President Donald Trump. Photo by Annabelle Gordon for the Washington Post via Getty Images
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a statement maintaining that it was important to keep the FBI in the capital.
“Having the FBI headquarters in our nation’s capital and near the Department of Justice keeps America safer,” said Bowser.
“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 added. “A safe and beautiful D.C. requires a committed federal partner that will keep our nation’s capital a symbol of American strength.”
Video of Patel’s announcement can be viewed below.
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