WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The attorney general for the United States (US) capital, Washington, has sued  President Donald Trump’s administration over what he called a “hostile takeover” of the city’s police force, which the Republican president said was necessary to fight violent crime.

Earlier this week, Trump placed the capital’s Metropolitan Police under federal government control while also sending the National Guard onto the city’s streets.

Then Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an order to install a hand-picked official as temporary police commissioner.

Federal law governing the capital “does not authorise this brazen usurpation of the District’s authority over its own government,” Attorney General Brian Schwalb wrote in a filing lodged in federal court.

Schwalb has asked for an immediate stay on Bondi’s order.

The government’s actions “go well beyond the bounds of the President’s limited authority and instead seek a hostile takeover of MPD,” Schwalb said in a statement on social media.

“This is an affront to the dignity and autonomy of the 700,000 Americans who call DC home.”

Unlike the 50 states, Washington operates under a unique relationship with the federal government that limits its autonomy and grants Congress extraordinary control over local matters.

Since the mid-1970s, the Home Rule Act has allowed residents to elect a mayor and a city council, although Congress still controls the city’s budget.

The overwhelmingly Democratic city faces allegations from Republican politicians that it is overrun by crime, plagued by homelessness and financially mismanaged.

But data from Washington police show significant drops in violent crime between 2023 and 2024, although that was coming off the back of a post-pandemic surge.