D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser pushed back on the order, saying "there is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal official."

D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb responded late Thursday that Attorney General Pam Bondi’s directive was “unlawful,” arguing that it could not be followed by the city’s police force.

The Trump administration increased its grip on D.C. policing Thursday, with Attorney General Pam Bondi appointing Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terry Cole as the city's "emergency police commissioner.