Lawyers from the District of Columbia and the Justice Department told a judge on Friday that the Trump administration would revise the terms of an order issued a day earlier giving the federal government control over the city’s police force to clarify that the city police chief will, for now, retain control.
Yaakov Roth, a lawyer for the Justice Department, indicated during an emergency hearing on the matter that his team was working from the courthouse to rewrite an order from Thursday that had given absolute control over the city’s police department to the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
As of Friday evening, the two sides said they were negotiating revisions to the order issued by Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday that had put the D.E.A. head in charge of the city’s police force.
The compromise came after Judge Ana C. Reyes encouraged lawyers from both sides to reach a short-term agreement that would have the federal government temporarily step back from asserting control over policing the city until the court dives more fully into the details of the case next week.
Judge Reyes, a Biden appointee, made clear that her initial reaction was that the Trump administration had gone far beyond the authorities Congress intended in the 1973 Home Rule law granting the city limited self-governance.
Washington’s government sued the Trump administration on Friday, arguing that an executive order issued by President Trump on Monday federalizing the city’s Police Department and the follow-up order by Ms. Bondi “far exceed” the president’s authority under the Home Rule law.
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The post D.C. Police Chief Retains Control of City Police After Court Hearing appeared first on New York Times.
