Washington DC is suing the federal government over its takeover of the police force, after US Attorney General Pam Bondi named the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as the district's "emergency police commissioner".
The city's attorney general, Brian Schwalb, wrote on X that the US government had illegally declared a takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and was "abusing its temporary, limited authority under the law".
The lawsuit asks a judge to void Bondi's order and stop the DEA head from "assuming any position of command within MPD".
President Donald Trump on Monday declared he would use federal law enforcement to crack down on crime in Washington.
He has since sent in hundreds of National Guard members and other federal agents to clear homeless encampments, run checkpoints and otherwise bolster law enforcement, citing a 1970s law known as the Home Rule Act that allows him to use MPD for "federal purposes" that he "may deem necessary and appropriate."
