Washington sues to stop federal takeover of police department

Washington: Washington, DC, sued Donald Trump on Friday over his attempted takeover of the US capital city's police force, escalating a power struggle between the US president and the city's leadership.

District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit challenging Trump's attempt to take control of the district's police force hours after the Trump administration named Drug Enforcement Administration head Terry Cole as city's "emergency police commissioner" with all the powers of a police chief.

Schwalb said the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, aims to get a ruling that Trump's takeover of the city's police department is illegal.

During oral argument on Friday in an emergency hearing about the case, US District Judge Ana Reyes expressed skepticism that the Trump administration has legal authority to run the city's police force or that Cole can effectively take charge of the department as its chief.

"I still do not understand on what basis the president, through the attorney general, through Mr. Cole, can say: 'You, police department, can't do anything unless I say you can,'" Reyes told a Justice Department lawyer.

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement before the hearing: "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."

Trump said on Monday he was deploying hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington and temporarily taking over the city's police department to curb what he has depicted as a crime emergency in the U.S. capital. Statistics show that violent crime shot up in 2023 but has been rapidly declining since.

Federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the DEA, have deployed agents to patrol the streets and carry out arrests. On Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an order transferring control of the police department from the city to the DEA's Cole.

Trump, who has suggested he could take similar actions in other Democratic-controlled cities, has sought to expand the presidency in his second term, inserting himself into the affairs of major banks, law firms and elite universities.

Friday's lawsuit, which names Trump, Bondi, Cole, and others as defendants, intensifies a growing battle over the city between Bondi and Mayor Muriel Bowser, who have emerged as the public faces of the power struggle.

Bondi's order said the city must receive approval from Cole before it can issue any directives to the roughly 3,500-member police force. It also sought to rescind several of the police department's prior directives, including one that addressed its level of involvement with federal immigration enforcement.

A Justice Department spokesperson did not have any immediate comment on the lawsuit.

Schwalb wrote in a social media post on Friday, "This is the gravest threat to Home Rule DC has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it."

The 1973 D.C. Home Rule Act is a federal law that established local self-governance for the District of Columbia.

It includes a provision that gives the U.S. president the power to control the D.C. police in response to "special conditions of an emergency nature" for up to 30 days. The 30-day period can be extended by a joint resolution of both chambers of the U.S. Congress, something Trump has suggested he might seek.

Some legal experts said Trump has exceeded his authority under the Home Rule Act, arguing the text of the statute does not authorize a complete presidential takeover of the police force.

Williams Banks, a professor of national security law at Syracuse University, said D.C.'s attorney general has "very solid arguments" that Trump has exceeded the authority granted to him by Congress, but the unprecedented nature of Trump's actions makes it difficult to assess what a judge will do.

"There's no playbook for this," Banks said. "There's no precedent either way."