The District of Columbia’s attorney general, Brian Schwalb, has filed a lawsuit to stop what he calls an “unlawful” federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) ordered by President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The legal battle follows a week of escalating tensions between local and federal authorities. On Monday, Trump announced a sweeping law-and-order initiative, deploying the D.C. National Guard, FBI agents, and ICE officers to the streets. As part of the plan, he placed the MPD “under direct federal control,” citing Section 740 of the Home Rule Act, which allows temporary emergency use of the city’s police for federal purposes.
Trump’s executive order directed D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to provide MPD services “for the maximum period permitted” and empowered Bondi to determine how those services would be used. On Thursday, Bondi ordered the immediate rescinding of sanctuary city protections and installed DEA head Terry Cole as “Emergency Police Commissioner,” a position above MPD Chief Pamela Smith for the duration of Trump’s emergency declaration.
Schwalb, in a letter to Chief Smith before filing suit, advised she was “not legally obligated to follow” Bondi’s directive. He argued the Home Rule Act “does not authorize the President, or his delegate, to remove or replace” the police chief, a power reserved for the mayor.
On Friday, Schwalb made it official, posting on X: “We are suing to block the federal government takeover of DC 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.”
The lawsuit asserts that Trump and Bondi’s actions “[i]n every respect” exceed the narrow authority granted under Section 740. The statute, Schwalb contends, permits only the temporary use of MPD “services” for federal purposes — not the installation of a federal official to run the department or the suspension of local policies.
“The Bondi Order purports to effect a complete takeover of MPD,” the suit says, granting Cole sweeping powers to issue commands, override existing policies, and block senior MPD leadership from acting without his approval. Schwalb is asking the court to declare the order “arbitrary and capricious” under the Administrative Procedure Act and to set it aside.
Calling the orders “plainly unlawful,” Schwalb is also seeking an injunction to halt Cole’s installation and block the open-ended emergency declaration, which he says undermines public safety and the District’s right to self-governance.
The District is entitled to a declaration that the EO and Bondi Order are plainly unlawful and that Section 740 does not permit Defendants to implement the EO, issue the Bondi Order, assert operational control over MPD, assume positions within the chain of command supervising MPD, bypass the Mayor to direct policies and services of MPD to perform local law enforcement functions, or declare an emergency on bases so vague that it is impossible to know when it is over.