By Steve Neavling
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday ordered the head of the DEA to take control of the Metropolitan Police Department, stripping decision-making authority from its chief.
Under the Justice Department order, DEA Administrator Terrence C. Cole will serve as MPD’s “emergency police commissioner” for the duration of the 30-day public safety emergency declared by President Donald Trump, NBC News reports. The move comes days after Trump directed the federal government to take over the D.C. police and deployed the National Guard to curb violent crime.
“Effective immediately, Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terrence C. Cole shall serve as MPD’s Emergency Police Commissioner,” the order reads. “Commissioner Cole shall assume all of the powers and duties vested in the District of Columbia Chief of Police.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser said Tuesday that Chief Pamela Smith was “operations lead in working with the federal government and federal forces” and coordinating with Cole and the U.S. Marshals Service.
“We expect that could range in the hundreds on any given night,” Bowser said of the additional officers.
Late Thursday, Bowser and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb challenged Bondi’s order, writing, “There is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal authority.”
In a legal opinion to Smith, Schwalb said the order “is unlawful, and that you are not legally obligated to follow it.”
Bondi defended the move on Fox News, citing what she called “sanctuary policies” in D.C.
“They’re trying to protect criminal aliens,” she said. “Criminals are going to flee to D.C., and we’re not going to let that happen. That’s why… we have made Terry Cole now the commissioner over the police.”
