Washington DC, US — US attorney-general Pam Bondi issued a directive late on Thursday naming Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) head Terry Cole as the “emergency police commissioner” of Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department.
The move drew immediate criticism from Washington DC’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, and district attorney-general Brian Schwalb. Bowser said there was nothing in the law that gave “the District’s personnel authority to a federal official”.
On X, Bowser shared a letter written by Schwalb, which said that Bondi’s order was “unlawful”, and that the current police chief was not legally obligated to follow it.
“Commissioner Cole shall assume all of the powers and duties vested in the District of Columbia chief of police,” Bondi said in the directive, adding that Cole would have the authority to issue orders that applied to MPD members.
MPD’s existing leadership, including the current police chief and bureau heads, “must receive approval from Commissioner Cole before issuing any further directives to the MPD,” Bondi said in the order.
Section 740 of the Home Rule Act “does not authorise the president, or his delegee, to remove or replace the chief of police; to alter the chain of command within MPD; … the Bondi order is, therefore, ultra vires,” Schwalb said.
US President Donald Trump said earlier this week he was deploying hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington DC and temporarily taking over the city’s police department to curb what he has depicted as a crime emergency in the US capital, though statistics show incidents of violent crime have dropped.
Trump, a Republican, said on Wednesday he would seek long-term federal control of Washington’s police force to crack down on crime, engaging in an escalating campaign to exert presidential power over the nation’s capital, a Democratic stronghold.
Context
Bowser, a Democrat, has pushed back on Trump’s claims that crime is rising, noting that violent crime hit its lowest level in more than three decades last year.
Both federal and city crime statistics show that violent crime in Washington has declined sharply since a peak in 2023. Trump called the statistics “fraud”.
Trump threats
Trump has previously threatened to expand his efforts to other Democratic-run cities, such as Chicago, that he also claims have failed to address crime.
Trump’s extraordinary moves in Washington are reflective of how he has approached his second term in office, shattering legal concerns to test the limits of his office’s power.
Reuters
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