The District of Columbia filed suit in federal court on 15 August accusing the Trump administration of illegally seizing control of the Metropolitan Police Department. D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb asked the court for an immediate temporary restraining order to halt the takeover, which he called “the gravest threat to Home Rule the District has ever faced.” The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes, who scheduled an emergency hearing for 2 p.m. Friday. Schwalb’s complaint targets both President Donald Trump’s 11 August executive order invoking Section 740 of the Home Rule Act and a 14 August directive from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi that installed Drug Enforcement Administration chief Terry Cole as MPD’s “emergency police commissioner.” The filing argues those actions exceed the limited authority Congress granted for federal use of local police during short-term emergencies, violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the separation-of-powers doctrine, and would create “operational havoc” within the 3,800-officer force. Bondi’s order removed Police Chief Pamela Smith, rescinded several sanctuary-city policies and required all future MPD directives to receive Cole’s approval. Earlier in the week, the administration deployed hundreds of National Guard troops and other federal personnel across Washington as part of a 30-day crime-reduction push, moves critics say were not justified by public-safety data. Mayor Muriel Bowser called the federal directives “unlawful,” and Schwalb told MPD officers to continue following city leadership. The lawsuit seeks to restore local control for the capital’s roughly 700,000 residents while the court weighs the legality of the administration’s unprecedented intervention.