Trump's win renews hopes for FBI headquarters to move to Fairfax County

Fairfax County leaders hope Trump win could give them chance of getting FBI headquarters

Fairfax County officials tell FOX 5 that they’re about to set to restart their fight to move the FBI headquarters to Virginia. It’s a battle that Virginia has already lost but some leaders in Fairfax County believe they can still reverse this. FOX 5's Tom Fitzgerald has the details.

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. - Fairfax County officials tell FOX 5 that they’re about to restart their fight to move the FBI headquarters to Virginia.

It’s a battle that Virginia has already lost but some leaders in Fairfax County believe they can still reverse this.

Back in November 2023, the General Services Administration announced that Greenbelt, Maryland would house the new FBI headquarters. But Donald Trump’s presidential election victory has thrown that decision into uncertainty.

Fairfax County Democratic Chairman Jeff McKay tells FOX 5 that this could be a second chance for Fairfax County to reverse the move.

"We’ve never given up," McKay said. "We still think we’ve got the better site. We think going to Greenbelt’s not only a mistake for the federal government but it’s a mistake for the FBI employees."

Maryland Congressman Glenn Ivey says that the FBI has waited long enough for a new building but McKay says on Tuesday, the Fairfax board will greenlight a new lobbying effort to lure the FBI, which he thinks the Trump administration would consider.

"I mean, we’ll have to see. He certainly blocked the new FBI headquarters when he was in the White House the first time. Hopefully, he won’t do that here," Ivey said.

Meanwhile, Trump’s naming of attorney Kash Patel to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray is raising eyebrows.

A well-known critic of the FBI, Patel has said that he’d close the FBI headquarters, spread its 7,000 agents across the country and turn the building into a "museum of the deep state."

Former FBI agent Kenneth Gray, who now works at New Haven University, tells FOX 5 that Patel would certainly shake up the FBI.

"The question to me is more about his temperament and also the fact that he’s likely to be a very, very strong advocate for the president and the director of the FBI should be somebody who is impartial," Gray said.

Christopher Wray was appointed as director of the FBI by Trump in 2017 and Wray’s term lasts until 2027.

It’s unclear if he’d resign or be fired by Trump but in a statement that the FBI wrote that "Director Wray's focus remains on the men and women of the FBI."