DC attorney general describes Pam Bondi order as ‘unlawful’

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an order on Thursday to slap down D.C. Metropolitan Police Department sanctuary policies and place Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terrence Cole in charge of the department as emergency police commissioner —  but D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser pushed back, highlighting a letter in which District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb opined that the order 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 said in a social media post.

Bowser included a letter from Schwalb to MPD Police Chief Pamela Smith, in which the D.C. attorney general said that, in his view, the order from Bondi “is unlawful” and that Smith is “not legally obligated to follow it.”

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In her order, Bondi declared that police leadership “must receive approval from Commissioner Cole before issuing any further directives to the MPD.”

Bondi rescinded an executive order that was just issued on Thursday by the police chief. 

She also suspended parts of two general orders “until further notice,” and directed the 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.”

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The showdown between the two attorneys general comes as President Donald Trump seeks to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital. 

This week he issued an executive order that declared “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.”

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But in the letter to the D.C. police chief, Schwalb asserted 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. 

“The Bondi Order is, therefore, ultra vires,” he declared.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report