August 15, 2025: Trump admin agrees to allow DC police chief to remain in charge after court challenge

Our live coverage of Donald Trump’s takeover of the Washington, DC, police department has ended for the day. Follow the latest updates or read through the posts below.

Trump administration and District of Columbia officials both celebrated following a long day of legal battles Friday after DC sued the administration to block the federal takeover of the city’s police department.

Here’s what happened:

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Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a new order Friday giving control of Washington, DC’s Metropolitan Police Department back to its chief, but would still require the city to answer to the Trump administration for the time being.

The new order comes after a hearing in federal court over a challenge to DEA Administrator Terrance Cole’s appointment as “emergency police commissioner” a day earlier. The judge presiding over the hearing said that Cole does not have the authority to unilaterally run the department.

Bondi’s new order follows that guidance, clarifying that Cole has to go through Mayor Muriel Bowser.

In effect, Bondi’s revisions merely change the process of issuing a directive, as Bowser is still required under the law to fulfill policing requests by the Trump administration.

Attorneys for DC are still able to challenge the order in court.

Key lines from the new order:

DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb, and DC Mayor Muriel Bowser give a statement to the press following a conclusion of a court session in Washington, DC, on Friday.

Washington, DC, Attorney General Brian Schwalb claimed Friday’s hearing on the district’s lawsuit against the Trump administration was a “very important win,” even though President Donald Trump will effectively retain control of the city’s police department.

“Very important win for Home Rule today,” Schwalb told reporters after the hearing, pointing to the Justice Department agreeing to rewrite a section of the order. However, even under the modified order, the Trump administration will still be able to make demands of DC police.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser echoed Schwalb’s comments, saying she is “encouraged” by the outcome of the hearing.

Under the changes to the Justice Department order directed by Judge Ana Reyes, DEA Administrator Terrance Cole will essentially be a liaison to the DC government, but the end result will be the same: The Trump administration retains control of the Metropolitan Police Department.

Mayor Muriel Bowser would still be required under the law to fulfill policing requests made by the Trump administration.

In effect, this does not change the overall impact of Bondi’s order or Trump’s emergency crime declaration earlier this week but instead creates a slightly more cumbersome process.

Attorneys for DC retain the right to go back to the judge if they are not satisfied with DOJ’s changes to the order.

The parties will continue to meet and discuss other issues raised against Bondi’s order in the DC attorney general’s lawsuit.

Law enforcement officers patrol in Georgetown on August 13 in Washington, DC.

The Justice Department has until 6:30 p.m. to revamp an order that placed the DEA administrator in charge of DC police, or a federal judge will issue a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration.

Judge Ana Reyes ordered DOJ to rewrite the section of the executive order issued Thursday by Attorney General Pam Bondi that sought to take control of DC police by placing Terrance Cole in charge under President Donald Trump’s crime emergency declaration.

The change would direct Cole to issue directives through Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office, rather than directly to Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith.

“He’s going to have to go through the Mayor,” Reyes said after attorneys for the Justice Department and the DC attorney general said they needed 45 minutes to re-write that part of Bondi’s order.

The hearing has resumed after a 100-minute break.

Judge Ana Reyes had urged both sides to negotiate.

“This lawsuit looks like a serious uphill climb for the DC Attorney General,” says Elie Honig, a CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, “because the law – Section 740 – says the mayor shall provide such services of the Metro PD as the President may deem necessary and appropriate.”

“That is very broad language,” Honig said. “And what DC is trying to argue is, well, ‘provide such services’ does not mean take over our personnel.’”

But that argument, Honig noted, might not get very far in the long term given how it is up to the president to determine what actions are necessary.

In this June 2022 photo, Ana Reyes testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

Judge Ana Reyes is overseeing the hearing over Washington, DC’s request for a temporary restraining order to stop Trump’s takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department and appointment of an emergency commissioner.

Reyes was appointed to the DC District Court by former President Joe Biden in February 2023. Before being appointed to the court, Reyes spent much of her career as a litigation attorney for Williams and Connolly, LLP. She handled a variety of cases, including international litigation and representing foreign government officials.

Reyes has dealt with a handful of high-profile cases since joining the court. In February, the Justice Department filed a complaint against Reyes and accused her of misconduct while she was overseeing hearings regarding Trump’s executive order that called for banning transgender service members from the US military.

Reyes is often seen around the DC District courthouse with her golden retriever, Scout.

Judge Ana Reyes took a break during Friday’s hearing before telling both parties to try and come to an agreement over the order from Attorney General Pam Bondi at issue.

“I want to get to a practical solution because time is short and and there are people who need to know who they are taking direction from and what they are doing,” Reyes said.

Bondi’s order sought to have DEA Administrator Terrance Cole take over the DC police and void certain DC laws regarding immigration enforcement.

Reyes noted, however, that the Home Rule Act, which Trump relied on to take over MPD, allows for making law enforcement requests of the mayor, but not have direct control over the police force.

“The answer necessarily isn’t just to say this is wrong, start over,” Reyes said of Bondi’s order.

According to Reyes, the wording of the order, which instead of requesting services makes demands to override laws and impose an outside head of police, is the biggest issue.

“The problem is in the details,” Reyes said.

Reyes also questioned attorneys for the DC’s Attorney General over whether Trump’s requests could supersede DC laws and if the mayor is required to follow the president’s requests.

“There is no wiggle room in the statute,” Reyes said, “It says ‘the mayor shall.’ Not the mayor should or the mayor can, or if the president asks nicely. ‘The mayor shall.’”

Federal officers from the DEA and other agencies patrol the National Mall on August 11 in Washington DC.

The Trump administration agreed with the judge that President Donald Trump’s control over the DC police will end after the 30-day period without approval from Congress.

“Does the federal government agree that if the, if the Congress does not act within 30 days to extend the period, then … basically we’re done?” Judge Ana Reyes asked.

”Yes,” Roth responded.

Under the DC Home Rule Act, a request from the president to control the DC police department for over 30 days must be passed into law by Congress.

Trump has indicated he will ask Congress to extend the takeover.

Reyes has focused on the difference between the White House requesting services of the Metropolitan Police Department as opposed to telling the MPD what it cannot do regarding sanctuary city laws in the capital.

Several parts of the Trump administration’s takeover are at issue including whether the president can install an interim police commissioner to take control of the DC police or act more as a liaison between the president and the mayor’s office.

“This is also not a semantic issue,” Reyes said. “The president can’t say, ‘Mayor, I am asking you for the services of your entire police department. I need every single one of them to be at my beck and call, and I want them to listen to every federal agent out there.’”

Reyes added: “I still just do not understand on what basis the president through the Attorney General, through Mr. (Terrance) Cole, can say ‘You, MPD, have to do whatever I say.’”

DEA Director Terrance Cole’s name was misspelled in Attorney General Pam Bondi’s order Thursday evening that solidified his position as “emergency police commissioner,” Judge Ana Reyes pointed out at the hearing Friday.

The order misspelled Cole’s name as “Terrence.”

“They misspelled his name on his badge” and on the order, Reyes said to DOJ attorney Jacob Roth. “Doesn’t give a lot of confidence if we can’t get his name right.”

Reyes also pushed Roth to recognize that, though Cole was tapped by Bondi to act temporarily as the commissioner, Pamela Smith is still in charge of the Metropolitan Police Department.

“He is not the chief of police,” Roth said. “The chief of police is still the chief of police.”

The judge overseeing the DC Attorney General’s lawsuit against the Trump administration’s takeover of MPD said she will not rule today on whether there is a national emergency in the district.

“I am not going to rule today based on whether or not there is a national emergency,” Judge Ana Reyes said. “I am going to take the federal government position on that for today’s purposes.”

Reyes also said it was her understanding that prior to the attack of a former DOGE employee that set off Trump to begin the federal increase in agents on the ground and eventual takeover of the DC police, both Trump and AUSA Ed Martin claimed separately “that the crime rate in the district has been down” despite the administration’s current position.

The hearing on other DC challenges is ongoing.

The emergency hearing in Washington, DC’s request for a temporary restraining order to pause the Trump administration’s takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department has begun.

Judge Ana Reyes is presiding.

Protesters rally outside Washington, DC’s Metropolitan Police Department on Friday.

Demonstrators gathered outside Washington, DC’s, police headquarters on Friday to protest President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the city’s law enforcement.

One of the protesters – 29-year-old Katie Garcia – has lived in Washington, DC, since last year, and says she now feels unsafe leaving her house.

“I’m in DC Ward 2, and I’ve lived here for about a year, and it’s wild, because I came here for work, and I was really excited about the energy that this city brought. And I’ve always wanted to live here,” Garcia said.

“With Trump’s takeover, I felt what’s going on in DC is terrifying,” she added.

Marta Ames, a 74-year-old DC resident who has been in the city since the 2000s, says she doesn’t participate in protests, but felt compelled to come to the rally today.

“I’ve never seen anything like this. I was stunned. I mean, I’m someone who believes in my First Amendment right, and we know he does not believe people should protest against anything he does,” adding that she’s “scared to death.”

“I’m curious what the federal troops … what they think and feel, because this is a waste of their time.”

CNN observed dozens of protesters gathered outside the Metropolitan Police Department as part of the rally.

Another protester, Michael Segal, 64, lives on Capitol Hill, and says he’s seen people get stopped and asked for documentation to show they are US residents.

“The fact that I’m walking down the street, and I can get stopped for my papers at any time … it’s just mind boggling to me.”

DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit Friday against the Trump administration over its moves to take over the city’s police department and appoint an emergency commissioner, the latest sign of pushback from district officials against the federal takeover.

“By declaring a hostile takeover of (the Metropolitan Police Department), the Administration is abusing its limited, temporary authority under the Home Rule Act, infringing on the District’s right to self-governance and putting the safety of DC residents and visitors at risk,” Schwalb said in a statement.

DC is also seeking a temporary restraining order.

It comes after Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday ordered the city’s mayor and police department to accept Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, as the district’s “emergency police commissioner” and give him full control of the department during the federal takeover.

Chief of Police at the Metropolitan Police Department Pamela Smith speaks at a press conference at the Wilson Building on August 11 in Washington, DC.

Trump’s takeover of the Washington, DC, police places officers and residents at “grave risk,” the Metropolitan Police Department chief said Friday.

“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 filing in DC’s lawsuit filed Friday to end the takeover.

It is, Smith wrote, “placing the lives of MPD officers and District residents at grave risk.”

The order would also cause officers to not know how the command structure operates because they are still “required under District law to respect and obey the Chief of Police as the head and chief of the police force.”

Smith confirmed that she was “unaware of President Trump’s plans to assume control of the local police force until he announced it at a press conference” on Monday.

Federal agents stand at the scene of an arrest outside New York Avenue Presbyterian Church on August 14 in Washington, DC.

Thirty-three people were arrested in Washington, DC, Thursday night, according to a White House official.

The official highlighted that 15 were undocumented immigrants, though it was unclear if this was why they were arrested.

Twenty multi-agency teams were deployed across the District “to promote public safety and arrest violent offenders,” the official said, adding that over 1,750 participants were involved in last night’s operations.

On average in 2024, DC had about 55 adult arrests per day, according to data kept by the city’s police department.

The White House official noted that eight illegal firearms were seized, and other arrests included warrants for first-degree murder and first-degree rape, aggravated assault, a juvenile carrying a pistol without a license and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, including crack cocaine and driving under the influence.

Additionally, three multi-agency teams were assigned to clear homeless encampments in Washington, DC, but the official would not confirm the locations.