WASHINGTON — The attorney general of Washington, D.C., sued President Donald Trump and members of his administration, accusing them of overstepping their authority when taking federal control of the city’s law enforcement earlier this week.
In the 33-page lawsuit filed on Friday, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb accused Trump and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi of appointing people to certain positions that usurp the control of local law enforcement officials. Those appointments, the lawsuit alleges, go beyond what Section 740 allows, referring to the statute in the D.C. Home Rule Act that Trump used to take federal control of the police department.
“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 DC residents and visitors at risk,” Schwalb said in a statement. “The Administration’s unlawful actions are an affront to the dignity and autonomy of the 700,000 Americans who call DC home. This is the gravest threat to Home Rule that the District has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it.”
The lawsuit pointed to the appointment of Terry Cole, the head of the Department of Drug Enforcement Administration, as the “emergency police commissioner” in D.C., claiming it is a great risk not to know “who is in command” at any moment.
Instead, Schwalb is demanding to return authority to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith — accusing Bondi of going too far in several orders.
For example, the lawsuit asserts that Bondi overstepped her authority when issuing an order to require MPD officers to receive Cole’s approval before giving officers directives. The lawsuit also cites recent orders to assist with federal immigration enforcement as overreach.
“In every respect, the Bondi Order and Defendants’ assertions of authority over MPD exceed the narrow delegation that Congress granted the President in Section 740,” the lawsuit states.
The White House defended its actions, telling the Deseret News in a statement the 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.”
“The Democrats’ efforts to stifle this tremendous progress are par for the course for the Defund the Police, Criminals-First Democrat Party,” said Abigail Jackson, a spokeswoman for the White House.
The lawsuit comes after the D.C. police chief issued an executive order on Thursday allowing local police officers conducting traffic stops to inform Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents about immigrants lacking permanent legal status — a marked departure from current city policy that limits cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
The order would also allow local officers to provide “transportation for federal immigration agency employees and detained subjects,” according to a copy of the order obtained by the Deseret News.
But the police executive order upholds several restrictions currently in place for local officers. It states that officers cannot ask an individual their immigration status “for the purpose of determining whether they have violated the civil immigration laws” or to research the individual’s immigration status through federal databases.
But the changes come as Trump administration officials have vowed to crack down on crime and illegal immigration in Washington, D.C. — even going so far as to declare the city’s “sanctuary” status as being revoked.
Trump took federal control of the city by invoking a rarely used statute that allows the president to oversee the city’s law enforcement on a temporary basis. The order will expire in 30 days unless explicitly extended by Congress.
That’s unlikely to happen as it would require Democratic support in the Senate. As a result, Trump suggested he might look at other ways to extend federal presence in the capital without congressional approval.
One way to do that, he said, is by declaring a national emergency.
“If it’s a national emergency we can do it without Congress, but we expect to be before Congress very quickly,” Trump said.
“I don’t want to call a national emergency,” Trump noted, but said: “If I have to, I will.”
The latest threats highlight an ongoing challenge for D.C. officials, who have been trying to crack down on rising rates of youth crime. Since the beginning of 2025, juveniles have made up more than 50% of arrests related to carjacking, according to D.C. police. A majority of those arrests are made up of teens who are 15 and 16 years old.
Still, crime rates in the city overall have gone down over the last year, according to statistics from the MPD. Violent crime, for example, has decreased by 26% compared to this time last year.
Trump also announced that his administration would begin removing homeless people from their encampments across the city and take them elsewhere, although it’s not entirely clear where they will go.
“We’re going to be removing homeless encampments from all over our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks, which now a lot of people can’t walk on, they’d be very, very dirty,” Trump said.
Trump also suggested D.C. is just the beginning of his efforts to crack down on crime in major cities, telling reporters on Monday that “we’re starting very strongly with D.C., and we’re going to clean it up real quick.”
“We have other cities also that are bad, very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad,” Trump said. “New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. … They’re so far gone. We’re not going to let it happen. We’re not going to lose our cities over this. And this will go further.”