By AZ Mirror
District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb Friday filed a suit in federal court over the Trump administration’s move to take control of the Metropolitan Police Department’s 3,400 officers.
The suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia argues that President Donald Trump’s Monday executive order to federalize the district’s police force “far exceeded” the president’s authority under the Home Rule Act of 1973 that allows Washingtonians to elect their local leaders, but gives Congress control over local laws and the district’s budget.
Trump has warned he may pursue similar action in other Democratic-led cities that he sees as having “totally out of control” crime, though experts have questioned the legality and mayors already have raised objections.
“This is the gravest threat to Home Rule DC has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it,” Schwalb, a Democrat elected in 2022, wrote on social media. “The Administration’s actions are brazenly unlawful. They go well beyond the bounds of the President’s limited authority and instead seek a hostile takeover of MPD.”
The suit also argues that Attorney General Pam Bondi’s late Thursday order that placed Drug Enforcement Administrator Terry Cole as head of the MPD is a “brazen usurpation of the district’s authority.”
