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WASHINGTON (CN) — The Washington attorney general sued the Trump administration Thursday over the deployment of more than 2,200 National Guard troops throughout the city, seeking an end to three weeks of “military occupation.”
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb brought the suit in District of Columbia federal court to end the “illegal federal overreach” before it happens again, he said in a statement.
“It’s D.C. today but could be any other city tomorrow,” Schwalb said. “Deploying the National Guard to engage in law enforcement is not only unnecessary and unwanted, but it is also dangerous and harmful to the district and its residents. No American city should have the U.S. military — particularly out-of-state military who are not accountable to the residents and untrained in local law enforcement — policing its streets.”
In the 52-page suit, Schwalb argues that Trump’s use of the National Guard violates both the Home Rule Act and Posse Comitatus Act — the same statute U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled Trump violated in deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles.
“No American jurisdiction should be involuntarily subjected to military occupation,” Schwalb said. “The District of Columbia brings this lawsuit to obtain declaratory and injunctive relief that will stop defendants’ violations of law, remedy the harms defendants are inflicting on the district and preserve the district’s sovereignty.”
The lawsuit comes as Mayor Muriel Bowser has welcomed the increased law enforcement presence, repeatedly refusing to refer to it as a federal takeover and instead labeling it a law enforcement “surge.”
On Tuesday, Bowser signed an executive order establishing the “Safe and Beautiful Emergency Operations Center,” which institutionalizes collaboration between city officials and various federal agencies like the FBI.
On Aug. 11, President Donald Trump invoked a provision in the Home Rule Act — a 1973 statute that granted the district a local government — that empowers him to take emergency control of the Metropolitan Police Department for a 30-day period. He has repeatedly suggested he would extend the takeover beyond the Sept. 11 deadline.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in a post on X Thursday that 1,841 people had been arrested since Aug. 11, with 81 arrests on Wednesday, and 188 illegal guns seized.
In an emailed statement, White House Spokeswoman Abigail Jackson defended the National Guard’s deployment as legally justified and slammed Schwalb’s lawsuit.
“President Trump is well within his authority to deploy the National Guard in Washington, D.C., to protect federal assets and assist law enforcement with specific tasks,” Jackson said. “This lawsuit is nothing more than another attempt — at the detriment of D.C. residents and visitors — to undermine the president’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in D.C.”
The spike in arrests has faced scrutiny in federal court, most infamously in the case of Sean Dunn, a former Justice Department staffer who U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro tried to charge with felony assault of an officer for hitting a Customs and Border Patrol agent with a Subway sandwich.
In a rare move, a federal grand jury refused to approve an indictment on the charge, leading Pirro to instead file a misdemeanor version that does not require a grand jury.
Schwalb previously challenged Bondi’s effort to take direct control of the MPD by ordering Drug Enforcement Administration administrator Terrance Cole be made “emergency police commissioner” on Aug. 14.
The move would have effectively federalized the MPD, circumventing the Home Rule Act’s outlined hierarchy where the president must request police services from the mayor, although the mayor can’t decline. Bondi walked back the order after a court hearing Aug. 15.
Thursday’s lawsuit focuses on the deployment of the National Guard, naming Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll, Bondi and Director of the U.S. Marshals Service Gadyaces Serralta as defendants.
The suit does not challenge the Trump administration’s deployment of federal officers throughout the city — Trump directed agencies to increase their police presence in the district on Aug. 7 — which has been the primary cause behind the increased arrests.
D.C. residents vastly disapprove of the federal takeover — according to a Washington Post poll, 79% either somewhat or strongly oppose the takeover — particularly the stark increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids throughout what had previously been a sanctuary city.
The rise has hit historically Latin American neighborhoods in the city, such as Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant, where many Salvadoran, Guatemalan and Nicaraguan refugees settled after fleeing conflicts in the 60s, 70s and 80s.
On Wednesday night, a police helicopter hovered over Mount Pleasant for about 30 minutes as unmarked federal vehicles and MPD officers made arrests, causing a crowd to gather and begin chanting “ICE go home.”
Since Trump activated the D.C. National Guard, Republican governors from Ohio, South Carolina, West Virginia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and South Dakota have sent more than 1,300 National Guard troops from their states.
Trump has indicated his desire to deploy the guard in other major cities, with efforts in Chicago reportedly underway.
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