Washington Files Lawsuit Challenging Trump’s Takeover of Police Department

Trump also deployed the National Guard to Washington.

Members of the National Guard patrol at Union Station in Washington on Aug. 14, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

WASHINGTON—The District of Columbia sued the Trump administration on Aug. 15 over its takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department.

“We are suing to block the federal government takeover of D.C. police. By illegally declaring a takeover of MPD, the Administration is abusing its temporary, limited authority under the law. This is the gravest threat to Home Rule DC has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it,” D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb posted on X.

“The federal government’s power over D.C. is not absolute, and it should not be exercised as such,” he said.

The Department of Justice declined to comment.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson defended the administration’s takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department.

“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,” she told The Epoch Times. “The Democrats’ efforts to stifle this tremendous progress are par for the course for the Defund the Police, Criminals-First Democrat Party.”

President Donald Trump announced on Aug. 11 that the federal government would take over the capital city’s police department. Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, was named the emergency commissioner of the police department.

This is part of the Trump administration’s effort to combat crime and homelessness in the city.

Trump also deployed the National Guard to Washington.

The National Guard does not have the authority to arrest people, though they can detain them until law enforcement arrives.

Trump invoked Section 740 of the Home Rule Act, which allows the president to control the city’s police department for up to 30 days. Congress must approve any extension.

The president has instructed federal law enforcement to patrol the nation’s capital every day for 24 hours.

Trump said an extension will be needed.

“We’re going to be asking for extensions on that—long-term extensions,” he said on Aug. 13. “You can’t have 30 days.”

“This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back,“ Trump said at a press conference. ”We’re taking it back under the authorities vested in me as the president of the United States.”

On Aug. 14, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the city’s police department chief, Pamela Smith, to cede authority to Cole. She also rescinded Washington’s sanctuary city policy, which limited the Metropolitan Police Department from sharing the immigration status of its detainees.

In a letter to Smith, Schwalb said the takeover is “unlawful” and that she is “not legally obligated to follow it.”

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser criticized Bondi’s move.

“Let us be clear about what the law requires during a Presidential declared emergency: it requires the mayor of Washington, DC to provide the services of the Metropolitan Police Department for federal purposes at the request of the President,” she posted on X.

“We have followed the law.

“About the U.S. Attorney General’s order, there is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal official.”

In a filing, Smith criticized Cole’s taking over the police department.

“If effectuated, the Bondi Order would upend the command structure of MPD, endangering the safety of the public and law enforcement officers alike. In my nearly three decades in law enforcement, I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive,” she wrote.

Smith said that the new command structure “will wreak operational havoc within MPD and create tremendous risk for the public.” It “will create confusion for MPD personnel, who are required under District law to respect and obey the Chief of Police as the head and chief of the police force,” she said.

“There is no greater risk to public safety in a paramilitary organization than to not know who is in command,” she added.