Washington D.C.’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Thursday over the president’s deployment of the National Guard in the city, a move that arrives just as Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are reportedly drafting legislation that seeks to make the elected attorney general a political appointee.
The lawsuit accuses President Donald Trump and senior defense officials of violating the Posse Comitatus Act, a law meant to prevent the president from using the military to enforce domestic law, among other laws, when he sent the National Guard to help curb crime in the nation’s capital.
“No American jurisdiction should be involuntarily subjected to military occupation,” D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb wrote in the lawsuit.
Schwalb’s lawsuit arrives as Republicans are drafting approximately 14 bills, seeking to intensify the current crackdown on crime in D.C. by revising the city’s criminal code to expand harsher punishments and revoke some power from city officials, the Washington Post reported.
One draft bill, seen by the Post, proposes making Schwalb’s position, which is locally elected, a political appointee, which would give the president more power over the city’s judicial system.
The slew of proposed legislation arrives as Trump is seeking to exert more federal control over D.C., in part by declaring there a “crime emergency” and deploying large numbers of federal law enforcement.
More than 1,300 National Guard members have been sent to patrol the city and make arrests, which the administration argues was necessary to help curb crime – despite the city’s crime levels declining in recent years.
But Schwalb, in the lawsuit, says that the president violated the law by deploying the National Guard because he ignored the Home Rule Act which gave D.C. the right to self-govern in a limited authority.
Washington, D.C., is not a state and therefore is not awarded the same independence from the federal government. For example, the D.C. National Guard is under the president’s direct command.
Schwalb says Trump’s decision also harmed D.C.’s businesses and tourism, inflamed tensions toward law enforcement, and infringed on the city’s ability to self-govern.
Abigail Jackson, a spokesperson for the White House, disputed Schwalb’s allegations in a statement.
“President Trump is well within his lawful 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 DC residents and visitors — to undermine the President’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in DC.”
Many of the Republicans’ proposed bills appear to be policies that Trump has advocated for or mentioned.
The proposal suggesting the city’s attorney general should be a political appointee would give Trump more authority over how juvenile crime is handled in the city – something the president has spoken at length about. Another proposes lowering the age at which juveniles can be tried as an adult from 16 to 14 years old.
Another draft bill suggesting D.C. should get rid of its Judicial Nomination Commission would mean the city does not have a say in who the president appoints as a judge.
Other proposed bills suggest fining individuals who sleep outside and formalizing Trump’s graffiti removal program.
The bills have not been finalized and could change before the committee meets to vote on them. The Senate would also have to approve the legislation before it was signed by the president.
A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee Republicans told the Post that the bills are “designed to ensure the nation’s capital city is safe and prosperous for all Americans.” The spokesperson said details are being finalized, and a formal notice and date for the legislative meeting will be set soon.
The Independent has asked a spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee for comment.
Trump and his allies have long promised that policies cracking down on crime, getting rid of homeless encampments, cleaning up graffiti, and conducting mass deportations of immigrants are intended to improve the quality of life in major cities.
But the president’s desire to flex federal influence in major cities is often targeted at Democratic-run cities such as Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, and Baltimore.
Over the last few weeks, he’s threatened to send the National Guard into various cities to control crime problems, similar to how he sent in troops to D.C. However, unlike D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, other city leaders have not embraced Trump’s quest to impose federal law enforcement.
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