Aug. 15 (UPI) — The District of Columbia is suing the Trump administration Friday, alleging overreach after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi installed an emergency police chief.
“We are suing to block the federal government takeover of D.C. police,” Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb posted to social media Friday. “By illegally declaring a takeover of [the Metropolitan Police Department], the Administration is abusing its temporary, limited authority under the law.”
The district filed both a complaint and a request for a temporary restraining order that would block President Donald Trump‘s memorandum which mobilized the district’s National Guard for policing purposes and deny Bondi’s installation of DEA Administrator Terrence Cole as the temporary police chief.
“This is the gravest threat to Home Rule DC has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it,” he added.
The Home Rule Act, passed in 1973, puts a mayor and a legislative council in charge of the district.
“The federal government’s power over DC is not absolute, and it should not be exercised as such,” Schwalb said in a separate post.
Schwalb continued in a series of posts, calling the Trump administration’s actions “brazenly unlawful,” and called the federal appropriation of policing control a “hostile takeover.”
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Ana Reyes has since scheduled both parties in the case to appear at a 2 p.m. EDT Friday hearing at which Reyes will rule on the district’s restraining order request.