Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit Friday challenging President Donald Trump’s unprecedented takeover of the U.S. capital city’s police force.
“The Administration’s actions are brazenly unlawful,” Schwalb said in a statement after the suit’s filing in U.S. District Court in D.C.
“They go well beyond the bounds of the President’s limited authority and instead seek a hostile takeover of” the Metropolitan Police Department, he said. “They infringe on the District’s right to self-governance and put the safety of DC residents and visitors at risk.”
Schwalb asked the court for a temporary restraining order that would pause U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Thursday night directive installing Drug Enforcement Administrator Terry Cole as head of the D.C. police.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said overnight that Bondi’s order was unlawful, and told Police Chief Pamela Smith that she is “not legally obligated to follow it.”
District Court Judge Ana Reyes ordered parties in the case to appear at a 2 p.m. ET Friday hearing on Schwalb’s request for the restraining order.
Reyes was appointed to the federal bench in 2023 by President Joe Biden.
Trump signed an executive order on Monday commanding Bowser to temporarily hand over the MPD to the federal government, while pressuring Congress to allow him to keep that control for longer than a 30-day maximum that would normally be allowed.
His order asserted emergency powers over D.C. by invoking a never-before-used section of the Home Rule Act, a 52-year-old law that established the district’s local government.
In a statement responding to the lawsuit, White House spokeswoman Abigail Johnson said, “The Trump Administration has the lawful authority to assert control over the D.C. Police, which is necessary due to the emergency that has arisen in our Nation’s Capital as a result of failed leadership.”
“The Democrats’ efforts to stifle this tremendous progress are par for the course for the Defund the Police, Criminals-First Democrat Party,” Jackson said.
Schwalb and other D.C. officials have stressed that the available data shows crime in the city has broadly declined over the past year.
Schwalb’s suit asks a judge to vacate Bondi’s order and block any future attempts to wrest control of the D.C. police force, “or otherwise attempt to direct local law enforcement activities.”
He also seeks a declaration that Trump’s executive order violates the U.S. Constitution’s provision enshrining a separation of governmental powers.
The lawsuit names as defendants Trump, Bondi, the Department of Justice, Cole, the Drug Enforcement Administration itself, along with the U.S. Marshals Service and its director, Gadyaces Serralta.
The DOJ declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Trump also deployed about 800 National Guard members to D.C. this week as part of his efforts to address what he claims is out-of-control violent crime in the nation’s capital.
He has brushed off official statistics showing that numerous categories of unlawful activity in D.C., including violent crime, have dropped by double-digit percentages in the past year.
