WASHINGTON: The attorney general for the US capital has sued Donald Trump’s administration over a “hostile takeover” of the city’s police force, which the Republican president said was necessary to fight violent crime.

Earlier this week, Trump placed the capital’s police department under federal government control while also sending 800 National Guard troops onto the city’s streets.

Attorney General Pam Bondi then issued an order on Thursday to install a hand-picked official— Drug Enforcement Administration chief Terry Cole — as “emergency” police commissioner.

Federal law governing the capital “does not authorise this brazen usurpation of the district’s authority over its own government”, Attorney General Brian Schwalb wrote in a filing lodged in federal court.

“Defendants have unlawfully seized operational control of MPD (police department), including by assuming positions in the chain of command and issuing policy directives to MPD.”

Schwalb has asked for a temporary restraining decree on Bondi’s order, and for the court to declare that Trump’s executive order exceeds his authority over the District of Columbia.

“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 residents and visitors at risk,” Schwalb said in a statement on social media.

“This is an affront to the dignity and autonomy of the 700,000 Americans who call DC home.”

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said late on Thursday that “there is no statute that conveys the district’s personnel authority to a federal official.”

Special status

Unlike the 50 states, Washington operates under a unique relationship with the federal government that limits its autonomy and grants Congress extraordinary control over local matters.

Since the mid-1970s, the Home Rule Act has allowed residents to elect a mayor and a city council, although Congress still controls the city’s budget.

The overwhelmingly Democratic city faces allegations from Republican politicians that it is overrun by crime, plagued by homelessness and financially mismanaged.

But data from Washington police show significant drops in violent crime in 2023 and 2024, although that was coming off the back of a post-pandemic surge.

Bowser said earlier this week that violent crime was “at its lowest level in 30 years”.

Trump has said he wants to tackle homeless encampments, and move those sleeping rough “FAR from the Capital”.

Washington is ranked 15th on a list of major US cities by homeless population, according to government statistics from last year.

On his Truth Social platform, Trump this week described Washington as “under siege from thugs and killers”, with higher crime rates than “many of the most violent Third World countries”.

But residents rejected that depiction. “It’s totally false, and obviously promulgated on his media to justify an unwarranted exercise of federal power,” 81-year-old Larry Janezich said.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2025