Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb (D) sued President Trump early Friday after the administration installed the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) head to command the city’s police force.
The 33-page complaint alleges DEA Administrator Terry Cole’s appointment as “emergency police commissioner” goes beyond the emergency authorities in the D.C. Home Rule Act that Trump invoked to surge law enforcement resources in the city.
The lawsuit seeks to cancel the DEA head’s installment and keep the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) under the command of Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and Police Chief Pamela Smith.
“There is no greater risk to public safety in a large, professional police force like MPD than to not know who is in command,” the lawsuit reads.
Citing a crime emergency, Trump on Monday began taking over the MPD by invoking a Home Rule Act provision that requires the mayor to provide law enforcement “services” to the president when special emergency conditions are declared.
City leaders initially vowed to comply, but they say the administration is now stretching the law too far.
Hours earlier, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an order appointing Cole to effectively take command of the force and requiring MPD leaders to receive his approval before issuing new directives. Bondi also purported to rescind MPD orders that limited how officers could aid immigration enforcement.
Schwalb quickly issued a legal opinion saying the order is unlawful and telling the MPD chief to not enforce it. And now, the District’s top local prosecutor has escalated the clash further with the lawsuit.
“Section 740 does not authorize this brazen usurpation of the District’s authority over its own government,” Friday’s lawsuit reads.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
The legal complaint does not implicate Trump’s other recent efforts to police the city, including the mobilization of 800 National Guard troops and surging federal law enforcement officers to patrol the city.
Updated at 9:43 a.m. EDT
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