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The lawsuit comes after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday night that DEA boss Terry Cole will assume the police chief’s duties and approval authority for any orders issued to officers.
National Guard personnel keep watch as travelers arrive at the entrance to Union Station near the Capitol, in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. J. Scott Applewhite / AP
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST, ASHRAF KHALIL and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, Associated Press
updated on August 15, 2025 | 10:42 AM
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s capital sued to block President Donald Trump’s takeover of its police department in court on Friday, hours after his administration escalated its intervention into the city’s law enforcement by naming a federal official as the new emergency head of the department.
Washington’s top legal official sought an emergency restraining order in federal court blocking a Trump administration move to put a federal official in charge of its police. District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb argues the police takeover is illegal and threatens to “wreak operational havoc.”
The lawsuit comes after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday night that Drug Enforcement Administration boss Terry Cole will assume the police chief’s duties and approval authority for any orders issued to officers. It was unclear where the move left the city’s current police chief, Pamela Smith, who works for the mayor.
Schwalb argues the new order goes beyond Trump’s authority and implementing it would “sow chaos” in the Metropolitan Police Department. “The administration’s unlawful actions are an affront to the dignity and autonomy of the 700,000 Americans who call D.C. home. This is the gravest threat to Home Rule that the District has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it,” Schwalb said.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the district’s lawsuit, and a White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Friday morning.
The police takeover is the latest move by Trump to test the limits of his legal authorities to carry out his agenda, relying on obscure statutes and a supposed state of emergency to bolster his tough-on-crime message and his plans to speed up the mass deportation of people in the United States illegally.
It also marks one of the most sweeping assertions of federal authority over a local government in modern times. While Washington has grappled with spikes in violence and visible homelessness, the city’s homicide rate ranks below those of several other major U.S. cities, and the capital is not in the throes of the public safety collapse the Trump administration has portrayed.
Schwalb had said late Thursday that Bondi’s directive was “unlawful,” arguing it could not be followed by the city’s police force. He wrote in a memo to Smith that “members of MPD must continue to follow your orders and not the orders of any official not appointed by the Mayor,” setting up the legal clash between the heavily Democratic district and the Republican administration.