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Trump admin agrees to allow DC police chief to remain in charge after court challenge

Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a new order Friday giving control of Washington, DC’s Metropolitan Police Department back to Chief Pamela Smith, but it would still require the city to answer to the Trump administration for the time being.

The new order comes after a hearing in federal court over a challenge to DEA Administrator Terrance Cole’s appointment as “emergency police commissioner” a day earlier. The order replaces one issued Thursday evening appointing Cole and giving him full control of the department during the federal takeover.

During the court hearing Friday afternoon, federal district Judge Ana Reyes encouraged the Justice Department and DC lawyers to work out a compromise addressing the effort to appoint new police leadership, so she wouldn’t have to issue a direct ruling or temporary restraining order.

Bondi’s new order follows that guidance, clarifying that Cole has to go through Mayor Muriel Bowser in order to provide directions to the police department.

“He’s going to have to go through the Mayor,” Reyes said Friday.

In effect, however, Bondi’s revisions merely change the process of issuing a directive, as Bowser is still required under the law to fulfill policing requests by the Trump administration.

Home rule dispute

DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb on Friday sued the Trump administration over the earlier Bondi order, the latest sign of pushback from district officials against the federal takeover.

After Friday’s hearing, Schwalb said the result was a “very important win,” even though President Donald Trump will effectively retain control of the city’s police department.

“Very important win for Home Rule today,” Schwalb told reporters after the hearing, pointing to the Justice Department agreeing to rewrite a section of the order.

“The Home Rule charter and the Home Rule Act is very clear with respect to when the president can request limited services of MPD — limited by time, limited by emergency circumstances and limited for federal purposes,” Schwalb said. “And in all cases, those services must be requested to the mayor to be provided by the chief of police. Not a hostile takeover of our police.”

DC police chief issues warning

In a filing as part of the lawsuit, MPD Chief Pamela Smith said the takeover places officers and residents at “grave risk.”

“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,” Smith said

It is, Smith wrote, “placing the lives of MPD officers and District residents at grave risk.”

Smith confirmed that she was “unaware of President Trump’s plans to assume control of the local police force until he announced it at a press conference” on Monday.

Forceful response from DC leaders

Bowser has repeatedly said she wants to make sure the federal law enforcement surge is useful to the city, though she struck a more adversarial tone during an event this week, calling Trump’s police department takeover an “authoritarian push.”

Schwalb reviewed Bondi’s order and declared it illegal, saying he determined the Home Rule Act did not give Trump the authority to remove or replace the chief of police, or alter the MPD chain of command.

“It is my opinion that the Bondi order is unlawful, and that you are not legally obligated to follow it,” Schwalb said in a letter to Smith.

Schwalb wrote in the letter the act “does not authorize the President, or his delegee, to remove or replace the Chief of Police; to alter the chain of command within MPD; to demand services directly from you, MPD, or anyone other than the Mayor, to rescind or suspend MPD orders or directives; or to set the general enforcement priorities of MPD or otherwise determine how the District pursues purely local law enforcement. The Bondi Order is, therefore, ultra vires.”

Sanctuary city dispute

Bondi’s order had further directed MPD to abandon a directive Smith signed earlier in the day giving officers limited ability to share information with federal immigration officials. And, the order said, MPD leaders “must receive approval from Commissioner Cole before issuing any further directives.”

Justice Department officials believed that earlier directive was meant to reinforce the type of sanctuary city policies that DOJ has vowed to put an end to, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

In addition to ordering that the directive be rescinded, Bondi instructed Bowser to get rid of two additional police policies aimed at protecting undocumented migrants, including one that prevents MPD from arresting an individual solely for federal immigration warrants.

This comes after Trump earlier this week declared a crime emergency and federalized DC’s police, tapping Cole as interim federal commissioner of MPD.

Bondi’s move makes clear that the federal police takeover in DC will go hand-in-hand with the Trump administration’s hardline immigration enforcement goals, using control over law enforcement in the district as a way to try to put an end to the city’s laws that protect undocumented migrants.

“DC will not remain a sanctuary city actively shielding criminal aliens,” Bondi said in an interview on Fox News Thursday. “Will not happen.”

Christina Henderson, a member of the DC City Council, also responded to the order on social media Thursday, writing “Respectfully, the Attorney General does not have the authority to revoke laws.”

This story and headline been updated with additional developments.

CORRECTION:This story has been updated to correctly identify the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Author: Hannah Rabinowitz , Shania Shelton , Gabe Cohen , Clay Voytek , Holmes Lybrand

Source: CNN:::

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