Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser and city Attorney General Brian Schwalb pushed back on U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s emergency police commissioner appointment, calling it “unlawful.”
Bondi on Thursday night issued a directive that places the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Terry Cole, as D.C.’s “emergency police commissioner.” The position will give Cole the same authority as Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith, who reports directly to Bowser.
Following Bondi’s directive, Bowser posted on X late Thursday, “Let us be clear about what the law requires during a Presidential declared emergency: it requires the mayor of Washington, DC to provide the services of the Metropolitan Police Department for federal purposes at the request of the President. We have followed the law. 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.”
In her post, Bowser shared Schwalb’s letter to Smith, which reads, “It is my opinion that the Bondi order is unlawful, and that you are not legally obligated to follow it.”
