Trump administration backs off demand to replace DC police chief — but directs cops to follow federal immigration laws

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Friday reversed course and agreed to leave the Washington, D.C., police chief in control of the department, while Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a new memo, directed the District’s police to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement “notwithstanding” city law.

Bondi’s new order Friday came after officials in the nation’s capital sued to block President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Washington police. On Thursday night. his administration escalated its intervention into the city’s law enforcement by naming a federal official as the new emergency head of the department.

The attorney general’s new order represents a partial retreat for the Trump administration in the face of intense skepticism from a judge over the legality of Bondi’s earlier directive that sought to put the police force under the full control of the federal government. But Bondi also signaled the administration would continue to pressure D.C. leaders to help federal authorities aggressively pursue immigrants in the country illegally, despite city laws on the books that limit cooperation between police and immigration authorities.

The District of Columbia’s police chief said Trump’s earlier move to sideline her would threaten law and order by upending the command structure. “In my nearly three decades in law enforcement, I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive,” Chief Pamela Smith said in a court filing.

The two sides sparred in court for hours Friday before U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, who is overseeing the lawsuit. She indicated the law likely doesn’t grant the Trump administration power to fully take over city police, but it probably does give the president more power than the city might like.

“The way I read the statute, the president can ask, the mayor must provide, but the president can’t control,” said Reyes, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden.

The judge asked the two sides to hammer out a compromise, and promised to issue a court order temporarily blocking the administration from naming a new chief if they couldn’t agree.

An attorney for the Trump administration, Yaakov Roth, said in court that the move to sideline Smith came after an immigration order that still held back some aid to federal authorities. He argued that the president has broad authority to determine what kind of help police in Washington must provide.

Washington officials were pushing in court to halt U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s order Thursday to put the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Terry Cole, in charge of Washington police.

The police takeover is the latest move by Trump to test the limits of his legal authorities to carry out his agenda, relying on obscure statutes and a supposed state of emergency to bolster his tough-on-crime message and his plans to speed up the mass deportation of people in the United States illegally.