U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an order Thursday targeting the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department’s sanctuary city policies, placing Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terrence Cole in charge as emergency police commissioner. But D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser pushed back, citing a letter from District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb, who argued the directive from Bondi “is unlawful.”
“In reference to the U.S. Attorney General’s order, there is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal official,” Bowser wrote in a social media post.
She shared Schwalb’s letter to MPD Police Chief Pamela Smith, in which he stated that the order “is unlawful” and that Smith is “not legally obligated to follow it.”
In her directive, Bondi declared that MPD leadership “must receive approval from Commissioner Cole before issuing any further directives to the MPD.” She also rescinded an executive order that Chief Smith had issued earlier the same day.
Bondi further suspended portions of two general orders “until further notice,” and directed MPD “to enforce, to the maximum extent permissible by law, section 22-1307, District of Columbia Code, and all District of Columbia municipal regulations pertaining to the unlawful occupancy of public spaces.”
The clash between the two attorneys general comes as President Donald Trump intensifies efforts to combat crime in Washington, D.C. Earlier this week, he signed an executive order declaring that “the Mayor of the District of Columbia (Mayor) shall provide the services of the Metropolitan Police force for Federal purposes for the maximum period permitted under section 740 of the Home Rule Act.”
In his letter to the police chief, Schwalb countered that Section 740 of the Home Rule 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.”
He concluded that “the Bondi Order is, therefore, ultra vires.”
