GREENBELT, Aug. 18 -- A federal judge on Monday permanently blocked the Trump administration from moving the Federal Bureau of Investigation's headquarters to a downtown Washington office building, ruling that the White House had violated federal law when it diverted more than half a billion dollars that Congress had set aside for a new FBI campus in suburban Maryland.

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang of the District of Maryland found the administration's redirect of $555 million in congressionally approved funds to the Ronald Reagan Building "arbitrary and capricious and not in accordance with law." The court permanently enjoined the administration from proceeding with any renovation of the Reagan Building for FBI use, and from direc...