DEA Head Named DC’s Emergency Police Commissioner

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Pam Bondi has named the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration as Washington’s “emergency police commissioner,” saying she is granting him the powers of the police chief amid President Donald Trump’s takeover. Bondi said in an directive issued Thursday evening that DEA boss Terry Cole will assume “powers and duties vested in the District of Columbia Chief of Police.” But the capital’s attorney general responded that Bondi’s order was “unlawful” and said local officers must continue to follow Police Chief Pamela Smith’s orders. Mayor Muriel Bowser says “there is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal official.”