The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a formal investigation into whether officials at Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department falsified crime statistics to make the city appear safer, according to people familiar with the matter. The probe is being led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia under Jeanine Pirro and was confirmed on 19 August by multiple law-enforcement officials. Federal interest intensified after MPD Commander Michael Pulliam was placed on paid administrative leave in May amid accusations that he downgraded serious offenses. The inquiry is expected to examine whether other senior police and municipal officials also altered data and, if so, what federal statutes may have been violated. Neither the Justice Department nor the MPD has commented publicly; City Hall also declined to respond. The review comes less than two weeks after President Donald Trump invoked emergency powers on 11 August to assume temporary control of the police department and deploy hundreds of National Guard members, citing what he called an unchecked crime wave. Trump has accused city leaders of providing “fake crime numbers,” while Mayor Muriel Bowser maintains that violent crime fell about 26 percent from last year and says federal oversight is unwarranted. The investigation adds a legal dimension to the ongoing political standoff over policing in the nation’s capital.