D.C. slams Trump’s ‘baseless power grab’

First, President Donald Trump claimed the nation’s capital was overrun with violence, declared a “crime emergency” and used a provision of the Home Rule Act to place the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) under direct federal control. Amid protests, he sent in the National Guard. Then U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi declared she was installing an emergency police commissioner to take over “all the powers and duties” of the city’s police chief. In response, Knewz.com can report, Washington officials pushed back and sued the Trump administration, calling the move a “baseless power grab.”

D.C. officials sue, fire back

Washington officials including Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, who are both Democrats elected by D.C. residents, countered that Bondi’s Justice Department didn’t have the right to alter the chain of command for officers in D.C.’s MPD by ordering them to instead take orders from Drug Enforcement Administration head Terry Cole, whom Bondi named as emergency police commissioner. “By illegally declaring a takeover of MPD, the administration is abusing its temporary, limited authority under the law,” Schwalb wrote in a statement, calling the move “the gravest threat to Home Rule DC has ever faced” and declaring the city was “fighting to stop it.”

D.C. attorney general issues scathing statement

In his statement, D.C. Attorney General Schwalb further declared that the federal government’s power over Washington is “not absolute” and pointed out that “in DC’s 52 years of Home Rule, no president has tried invoking this authority” — until Trump did it. Schwalb called the administration’s actions “brazenly unlawful,” further saying they “go well beyond the bounds of the president’s limited authority and instead seek a hostile takeover of MPD. They infringe on the District’s right to self-governance and put the safety of DC residents and visitors at risk.””According to Schwalb, the move was nothing short of an “affront to the dignity and autonomy of the 700,000 Americans who call DC home.”

The White House responds

“The Trump 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,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

D.C. police chief and council chairman respond

D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said the Trump administration’s actions were “endangering the safety of the public and law enforcement officers.” In her nearly three decades in law enforcement, she added, “I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive.” D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson said that “giving us additional resources is a good thing, but that’s also quite different than federalizing our police force. Donald Trump is not going to tell our police how to police.”

A pseudo-win for D.C.

Hours after D.C’s legal challenge was filed, federal Judge Ana Reyes ordered the Justice Department to rewrite the executive order at the center of the issue or face a restraining order against the Trump administration. Bondi’s DOJ complied, directing DEA Administrator Cole’s orders to go through the mayor’s office rather than directly to the D.C. police chief. Despite the change, the Trump administration essentially retained control of D.C.’s police department, though D.C. AG Schwalb still considered it to be a “very important win for Home Rule today,” he said. “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. And in all cases,” he added, “those services must be requested to the mayor to be provided by the chief of police. Not a hostile takeover of our police.”

The post D.C. slams Trump’s ‘baseless power grab’ appeared first on Knewz.