Report: “Judge Blocks Sale and Closure of National Archives in Seattle; Notes ‘Public Relations Disaster’ by Feds”

U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour granted a preliminary injunction Friday morning to stop the sale of the National Archives property in Seattle.

He pointedly asked Brian Kipnis, an assistant U.S. attorney in Seattle, if anybody on the five-person Public Buildings Reform Board was from the Pacific Northwest.

That’s the little-known entity that in January 2020recommended the Archives be shuttered in Seattle. The board was created in 2016 to find what it deems excess federal property.

Coughenour said the feds could have avoided a “public relations disaster” if they had “displayed some sensitivity” to how the closure affected the Northwest.

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Coughenour said he’d issue a written decision next week.

Going forward, said Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, “Unless the federal government formally reverses course, at some point we’ll be asking for a final decision on the merits of the case.”