The Obama-appointed judge who ruled that the FBI cannot relocate its headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center has donated thousands of dollars to Democrats and has a history of ruling against President Donald Trump.
Judge Theodore D. Chuang, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, found on Monday that the administration’s plan cannot proceed. As CBS News reported:
Last November, the state of Maryland sued Patel and the bureau, alleging that the Trump administration had attempted to “unlawfully sabotage” the 2023 plan and illegally divert funding that Congress had designated for the plan — over $323 million — away from it.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang sided with Maryland, writing in a 47-page opinion that the Trump administration’s move to divert the funding and cancel the plan was “arbitrary and capricious and not in accordance with law,” in addition to other violations of federal law.
In December, FBI Director Kash Patel said that moving the headquarters to the Reagan Building would save billions in taxpayer funds.
“When we arrived, taxpayers were about to be on the hook for nearly $5 billion for a new headquarters that wouldn’t open until 2035. We scrapped that plan,” Patel wrote.
“Instead, we selected the already-existing Reagan Building, saving billions and allowing the transition to begin immediately with required safety and infrastructure upgrades already underway,” he added.
Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show Chuang was a longtime Democrat donor before being appointed to his post as a U.S. judge in 2014, contributing just shy of $6,000 to support Democrat candidates—like Obama, Tammy Duckworth, and John Kerry—and committees between 2004 and 2013. Records show he has not donated to any political candidates or committees since 2013.
In 2017, he ruled against Trump’s ban on individuals from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from traveling to the United States.
Chuang has also ruled in favor of progressive causes. For instance, during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, he issued a decision allowing women to receive mifepristone, otherwise known as the abortion pill, through the mail rather than attending an in-person medical visit.
In February 2025 ,”He granted a temporary injunction barring U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents from arresting undocumented immigrants at houses of worship belonging to several religious organizations,” as Courthouse News reported.
According to the New York Times, the FBI responded to Chuang’s decision blocking the Reagan Building from serving as its headquarters.
“This is not the first time courts have tried to undermine the administration in its goal to make government more cost-effective for American taxpayers,” the bureau said in statement.
“The court has chosen to impermissibly intervene for political reasons. This F.B.I. is mission focused and will continue the best course of action to meet the needs of law enforcement,” it added.
