Bondi Puts Head of DEA in Charge of DC Police

Via the AP: Bondi names DEA head as DC’s ‘emergency police commissioner,’ but capital leaders push back.

The Trump administration, stepping up its crackdown on policing in the nation’s capital, on Thursday named the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration to be Washington’s “emergency police commissioner” with all the powers of the police chief — a significant move that increases national control over the city as part of the federal government’s law-enforcement takeover.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a directive issued Thursday evening that DEA boss Terry Cole will assume “powers and duties vested in the District of Columbia Chief of Police.” The Metropolitan Police Department “must receive approval from Commissioner Cole” before issuing any orders, Bondi said. It was not immediately clear where the move left Pamela Smith, the city’s current police chief, who works for the mayor.

This is a heavy-handed move by the administration in a process that continues to be an authoritarian power grab in the nation’s capital.

Three quick thoughts.

First, they are clearly trying to send a signal that the crackdown on DC is justifiable due to drugs. Naming the DEA head as in charge of the police force will help solidify, in the minds of some, that narrative.

Second, the skills needed to be head of DEA and being the acting police chief of a major city are not the same thing. Cole lacks the training and expertise for this job. Just because they are both vaguely part of “law enforcement” does not mean they are the same kinds of jobs.

Third, the Trump administration’s predeliction to give multiple big jobs to the same person is foolish (see also SecState/National Security Advisor Rubio and SecTrans/Head of NASA, Sean Duffy,* off the top of my head). Being head of the DEA is a big job, as is being chief of police of DC under normal circumstances, let alone in a situation like this. Just from an administrative point of view, this is foolishness.

There are, of course, legal concerns as well.

D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb responded late Thursday that Bondi’s directive was “unlawful,” arguing that it could not be followed by the city’s police force. “Therefore, members of MPD must continue to follow your orders and not the orders of any official not appointed by the Mayor,” Schwalb wrote in a memo to Smith, setting up a potential legal clash between the heavily Democratic district and the Republican administration.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote on social media that “there is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal official.”

I have not researched the legal parameters of this move, but it strikes me as likely that the move is, at best, based on highly dubious legal foundations. No doubt the argument (so to speak) will be made on the basis of emergency powers. I would simply note that there is no emergency in DC. Yes, there is crime. But the presence of crime does not an emergency make. Moreover, it is worth underscoring that the declaration of emergencies and the abuse of power by that mechanism is classic authoritarian governance.

See also News 4 (NBC Washington), DC sues Trump admin over move to sideline MPD chief, calls it ‘hostile takeover’.

*I did a quick search to confirm a simple fact, and this summary from Wikipedia about Duffy is just so absurd that I had to share: “Sean Patrick Duffy is an American politician, former television presenter, lobbyist, attorney, and lumberjack serving as the United States secretary of transportation. Duffy has additionally served as the acting administrator of NASA since 2025.”