D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb are clapping back a late-night attempt by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to unlawfully usurp the D.C. police chief. Their message: We’ll see you in court, President Trump.
Bondi on Thursday evening issued an order to install Terrance Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, as the “emergency police commissioner” of the Metropolitan Police Department “for the duration of the emergency” that President Trump invented from whole cloth in his federal takeover of the District. Bondi claimed Cole would have the authority to issue orders to members of the MPD—and that department leadership, from Chief Pamela Smith down, would have to receive his approval “before issuing any further directives” to its officers.
Bondi also rescinded an executive order Smith issued earlier that day, which allowed the MPD to coordinate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement but placed limits on the department’s assistance of ICE.
Schwalb on Friday sued the Trump administration in response. “By declaring a hostile takeover of MPD, the Administration is abusing its limited, temporary authority under the Home Rule Act, infringing on the District’s right to self-governance and putting the safety of DC residents and visitors at risk,” he said in a statement. “This is the gravest threat to Home Rule that the District has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it.”
Late Thursday, Schwalb had issued an opinion stating that Bondi’s order was beyond the U.S. attorney general’s legal authority, arguing that the order is “unlawful, and that you are not legally obligated to follow it.” According to Schwalb, the Home Rule Act—which Trump is invoking (and testing the limits of) in his crackdown on the capital—does not grant the executive branch power to “remove or replace” the police chief, “alter the chain of command,” issue or rescind MPD orders or directives, or “otherwise determine how the District pursues purely local law enforcement.”
“You are the lawfully appointed Chief of Police,” Schwalb’s opinion continued, and the police “must continue to follow your orders and not the orders of any official not appointed by the Mayor.”
Bowser shared Schwalb’s opinion on X, along with a statement. “We have followed the law,” she wrote. “In reference to the U.S. Attorney General’s order, there is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal official.”
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