WASHINGTON, D.C. – The FBI is leaving its longtime headquarters in D.C. and will transfer 1,500 employees to locations around the country, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
What we know:
Patel announced the news Friday morning, stating he didn’t expect to share the details of the move.
“This FBI is leaving the Hoover building because this building is unsafe for our workforce,” Patel told Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo in a preview clip of an interview that is set to air on Sunday, May 18 on the network.
“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.”
“So we are taking 1,500 of those folks and moving them out. Every state is 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 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 added that the transition will begin in the next “three, six, 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, we’re going to give you a building that’s commensurate with that, and that’s not this place.”
The Source: Information from Fox News was used to write this report.