District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced Thursday that the District is suing the Trump administration for its National Guard presence in the capital.
“Armed soldiers should not be policing American citizens on American soil,” Schwalb wrote on X. “The forced military occupation of the District of Columbia violates our local autonomy and basic freedoms. It must end.”
Since declaring a “crime emergency” in the nation’s capital in mid-August, National Guard troops from seven other states have joined the president’s mobilization of thousands of D.C. National Guard members and a federalized metro police force in patrolling the capital’s streets.
By law, Trump’s federalization of the D.C. police force cannot go beyond 30 days — which would fall on Sept. 9 — without congressional approval or action by the mayor. Schwalb filed a similar lawsuit on Aug. 15 against the federalized police force, arguing it infringed on the district’s right to self-governance.
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The White House pushed back on the portrayal of Trump’s deployment, saying the president is “well within his lawful authority to deploy the National Guard in Washington D.C.”
“This lawsuit is nothing more than another attempt — at the detriment of DC residents and visitors — to undermine the President’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in DC,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told NOTUS.
Mayor Muriel Bowser issued an executive order on Tuesday ordering the Metropolitan Police Department to continue coordinating with federal law enforcement officials indefinitely. At press conferences throughout August, Bowser spoke in support of some aspects of Trump’s efforts, touting a decrease in the crime rate.
On Wednesday, Bowser clarified her executive order “does not extend the federal emergency” but “lays out a framework to exit this period.”
This week, a federal judge ruled the Trump administration willfully broke the law by sending troops into California earlier this summer to quell immigration protests without approval from state officials. The ruling pleased critics of Trump’s threats to continue his campaign against crime in other cities.
In his post announcing the lawsuit, Schwalb said the “harms to the District are immense.”
“National Guard units are operating without lawful authority and without law enforcement training,” Schwalb’s post continued. “They create confusion, sow fear, erode trust, inflame tensions, and harm the crucial relationship between police and communities they serve.”
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