Attorney General Pam Bondi has backed off a plan to replace the police chief in Washington, D.C., after city leaders went to a Joe Biden-appointed federal judge to block the effort.
The reversal came hours after Terry Cole, a 22-year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), was named "emergency police commissioner," escalating Trump's crime crackdown in the nation's capital.
A directive from Bondi said that Cole would take on the "powers and duties vested in the District of Columbia Chief of Police," and the Metropolitan Police Department was directed to "receive approval from Commissioner Cole."
The move was swiftly challenged by city leaders, who called it an illegal overreach under the Home Rule Act, which grants D.C. a degree of autonomy.
“By illegally declaring a takeover of MPD, the Administration is abusing its temporary, limited authority under the law,” D.C. attorney general Brian Schwalb (D) said on social media Friday. “This is the gravest threat to Home Rule DC has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it.”
At a hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee, signaled she would rule in the city's favor unless the Justice Department curtailed the scope of the order.
“In the interim, Mr. Cole is not going to be able to direct police department individuals to do anything,” Reyes said. “He’s going to have to go through the mayor.”
After Friday's hearing, the Justice Department said it would designate Cole as the DOJ's liaison for "requesting services" from the police.
To fight crime, Trump has federalized D.C.'s Metropolitan Police, and 800 National Guard troops have been deployed to patrol the streets. Cole, the current DEA director, has echoed Trump's point that violent youths are being coddled.
“It is frustrating for law enforcement because they are encountering these same violent youth criminal offenders, numerous occasions, with handguns. But this is something we cannot turn a blind eye to,” he told Fox News in an interview Tuesday.
Democrats have vehemently insisted crime is in stark decline and that Trump is creating a pretext for an "authoritarian" push.
But even some Trump critics concede that D.C. has a real problem with crime - and the police department has been accused of fudging the numbers to make crime seem less severe than it is.
The current chief, Pamela Smith, joined the Metropolitan Police as a DEI officer before getting promoted to the top job.
