D.C. Sues Trump Administration Over Police Takeover and Rallies Against ‘Emergency Commissioner’ Appointment

Washington, D.C.,’s Attorney General Brian Schwalb has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the District of Columbia against the Trump Administration over its federal takeover of the D.C. police force and its appointment of Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) chief Terry Cole as D.C.’s “Emergency Police Commissioner.”

In a statement alongside the lawsuit on Friday, Schwalb said that he would be “challenging the federal government’s unlawful attempt to take over the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD)” in an effort “to ensure that control of MPD remains with the Mayor, the Chief, and the people of the District of Columbia.”

This comes after Bondi issued the appointment of Cole in a directive late on Thursday night, stating that he will “shall serve as the MPD’s 'Emergency Police Commissioner' for the duration of the emergency declared by the President.”

Per Bondi, as part of Cole’s appointment, the DEA chief “shall assume all of the powers and duties vested in the District of Columbia Chief of Police” and all MPD seniors must wait for approval from Cole before issuing any of their own directives.

The move follows President Donald Trump’s widely-critiqued takeover of the police force in D.C., a decision he says was prompted by “crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor” in the capital. A depiction that has been strongly refuted by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Schwalb, and others.

“This is liberation day in D.C. and we’re going to take our capital back,” Trump said on Monday, announcing he was temporarily putting the Washington, D.C. police department under federal control. “This city will no longer be a sanctuary for illegal alien criminals… we will deploy officers across the district with an overwhelming presence. You’ll have more police and you’ll be so happy.”

Read More: Trump Puts D.C. Police Under His Control and Deploys National Guard

Pending any legal intervention in the interim, Trump's takeover is authorized by law for 30 days from its initiation, but he will need congressional approval to legally maintain control after that.

Here's where things currently stand:

A look at the D.C. Attorney General's lawsuit against the Trump Administration

Schwalb filed suit against the Trump Administration in response to Bondi’s latest appointment as well as against Trump’s initial Aug. 11 federal takeover of the capital’s police force.

The lawsuit, which included a motion for a temporary restraining order to enjoin the Trump Administration from taking over the police department, said that both the Bondi directive and the overall federal takeover “far exceed the constraints of Section 740 [of the Home Rule Act]” and argued that the capital “will suffer imminent, irreparable harm” as a result.

“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 D.C. residents and visitors at risk,” Schwalb asserted in his accompanying statement.

“The Administration’s unlawful actions are an affront to the dignity and autonomy of the 700,000 Americans who call D.C. home. This is the gravest threat to Home Rule that the District has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it.”

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, nominated by Biden, heard the initial arguments during an emergency hearing on Friday afternoon. Of the tussle for control between the Trump Administration and D.C. officials, she said: “The way I read the statute, the President can ask, the Mayor must provide, but the President can’t control.”

D.C.'s Mayor Bowser co-signs pushback against appointment of "Emergency Police Commissioner"

In response to Bondi’s directive, Bowser took to social media with a strong statement. 

“Let us be clear about what the law requires during a Presidential declared emergency: it requires the mayor of Washington, D.C. to provide the services of the Metropolitan Police Department for federal purposes at the request of the President. We have followed the law,” she said on Thursday night. “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.”

Bowser bolstered her response through sharing a letter that she received from Schwalb, admonishing Bondi’s move.

Mayor Bowser was also mentioned in Friday’s lawsuit, with Schwalb arguing that despite Bondi’s appointment of Cole, Bowser “remains in command of the MPD, together with the Chief of Police.”

Schwalb called Bondi’s directive “unlawful” and said that Bowser had “no legal obligation to follow it.”

According to Schwalb, who has served as D.C.’s Attorney General since January 2023, section 740 of the Home Rule Act gives Trump the authority to direct Mayor Bowser to provide services of the MPD in special circumstances. However “it does not authorize the President, or his delegee, to remove or replace the Chief of Police, to alter the chain of command within the MPD” or to suspend any MPD directives.

“No official other than you may exercise all the powers and duties of the Chief of Police or issue any directive orders, general orders, or other written directives that apply to members of the MPD,” Schwalb directed Bowser.

Bondi has yet to publicly respond to the pushback from D.C. officials.

Schwalb has taken a firm stance against the Trump Administration’s takeover of the police force in D.C. since the beginning.

“The Administration’s actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful. There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia. Violent crime in DC reached historic 30-year lows last year, and is down another 26% so far this year,” he said on Aug. 11.

Who is Terry Cole, D.C.’s new Emergency Police Commissioner?

Cole was only recently appointed as Administrator of the DEA on July 23, but he has over 30 years of experience working in public offices, 22 of which has been spent serving the DEA.

Before his service in the DEA, Cole was a Naval Academy officer and New York State police officer. 

Cole held various roles within the DEA. He worked internationally, in Afghanistan and the Middle East, as a DEA Special Agent, and later served as the Agency’s Acting Regional Director for Mexico, Canada, and Central America.

From 2023 up to his appointment as head of the DEA, Cole worked as Virginia's Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security, in which he reportedly oversaw a 44% reduction in drug overdose-related deaths in the state, according to his DEA profile.

Cole has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the Rochester Institute of Technology, as well as certificates in leadership from the University of Virginia and the University of Notre Dame Mendoza School of Business.

According to the DEA website, Cole is currently pursuing further education at MIT’s Sloan Executive School for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

A precarious time for Washington, D.C., amid Trump’s takeover of the police force

The lawsuit and the pushback among D.C. officials against the Trump Administration comes after Trump said that he will ask Congress to extend his federal takeover of D.C. beyond its current 30-day period.

“We think the Democrats will not do anything to stop crime, but we think the Republicans will do it, almost unanimously,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “We’re going to need a crime bill… It is going to pertain initially to D.C.”

Over 100 people have been arrested in the capital since the start of Trump’s takeover, including 29 undocumented migrants who were arrested on Wednesday, according to a White House official.

More than 1,650 officers are on patrol in D.C. as part of a round-the-clock operation, alongside 800 National Guard troops, the Pentagon has reported.

“They will remain until law and order has been restored in the district as determined by the president, standing as the gatekeepers of our great nation's capital,” Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson told reporters on Thursday.

Bondi also stated on Thursday that a Department of Justice employee, 37-year-old Sean Charles Dunn, had been arrested in D.C. after throwing a sandwich at a federal agent.

“Not only is he fired, he has been charged with a felony. This is an example of the Deep State we have been up against for seven months as we work to refocus DOJ,” she said.