White House Backs Off 'Hostile Takeover' of D.C. Police After Lawsuit

The White House has backed off plans for a full takeover of the D.C. police force and will allow for the city’s police chief to remain in charge after a judge indicated they would block the move.  President Donald Trump this week invoked emergency powers to take control of the D.C. police department and call in the National Guard to a city that he claimed is overrun by “bloodshed, bedlam and squalor”—a claim that is disputed by experts. Read More: Trump Paints a Picture of D.C. as a Crime-Ridden Hell-Hole. Here Are the Facts As part of the federal takeover, Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Drug and Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Terrance C. Cole as “Emergency Police Commissioner,” a move that would have given the White House extraordinary powers over policing. The city’s Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit calling for an emergency restraining order to block the move, accusing the Trump Administration of implementing a “hostile takeover” of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) that would lead to “imminent, irreparable harm”. “In my nearly three decades in law enforcement, I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive,” Smith wrote in the lawsuit Judge Ana Reyes said in a Friday hearing that, according to the Home Rule Act, the Department of Justice needed to rewrite the section of the executive order that placed Cole in charge, and that he needed to go through the city’s mayor. Reyes stopped short of issuing a restraining order, but indicated that if the DOJ did not rewrite the section, she would. Read More: Trump Took Over the D.C. Police. He Can’t Do It In Other Cities, Legal Experts Say “The statute [The Home Rule Act] would have no meaning at all if the president could just say ‘we’re taking over your police department,’” Reyes said. In a press conference after the hearing, Schwalb touted the result as a “very important win for Home Rule today.” A new directive by Bondi following the lawsuit allowed for Chief Pamela Smith to remain in charge of the force, though the city will still be under the Administration’s control, and orders will be sent through the city’s Mayor Muriel Bowser. The Trump Administration will still essentially have control over the city, but Smith will maintain control of the day-to-day operations of the MPD. In Bondi’s new directive, though, she also required MPD to comply with the Trump Administration’s aggressive immigration tactics, rescinding two police practices that limited MPD’s immigration enforcement—also known as “sanctuary policies.” D.C’s At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson reacted on X that, “Respectfully, the Attorney General does not have the authority to revoke laws.” In the first week alone of the Trump Administration’s federal takeover, nearly 200 arrests have been reported in the city, including many undocumented immigrants, which has alarmed civil rights groups.