U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s order naming a federal official as the emergency police commissioner of the District of Columbia’s police department, and rescinding an executive order from the department, is not legal, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said on Aug. 14.
“It is my opinion that the Bondi Order is unlawful, and that you are not legally obligated to follow it,” Schwalb told Pamela Smith, the police chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), in a missive released by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment….