Ranking Member Jamie Raskin’s Statement on President Trump’s Unprecedented Takeover of Local Police in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C. (August 11, 2025)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, released the following statement after President Donald Trump announced he would federalize the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and deploy the National Guard in Washington, D.C.:
“In another transparent ploy to distract America from his coverup of the Epstein file, Donald Trump now wants to militarize the District of Columbia to attack crime and clean up graffiti in the capital city despite the fact that crime is at a 30-year low in Washington and graffiti seems to be pretty sparse. It is at least heartening to have the President recognize what was obvious to the world on January 6, 2021, which is that he has the authority to call up the National Guard in Washington, D.C. On that day, Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders were literally begging Trump to deploy the Guard to put down the rampaging mob violence that he had incited against Congress, Vice-President Mike Pence and Capitol Police, Metropolitan Police and Montgomery County Police officers (among others) fighting to defend the Capitol. However, this action is four-and-a-half years late and obviously nonsensical today.
“No one in Washington is asking Trump to deploy the National Guard or take over the MPD. This is a phony, manufactured crisis if I’ve ever seen one.
“Since taking office, Trump has repeatedly undermined public safety in our nation’s capital. On his first day, without consulting District leaders or the hundreds of police victims, Trump pardoned and released from prisons and jails 1,600 individuals who participated in the worst mass domestic violent attack on the U.S. Capitol and D.C.’s local police in American history, including several hundreds convicted of beating cops. Then he began firing D.C.’s most experienced career violent crime prosecutors simply because they had prosecuted the cop-beating January 6 insurrectionists whom Trump pardoned. He has named January 6 participants, pro-insurrectionist conspiracy theorists, and election deniers to run the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C., the Justice Department, and the FBI.
“In a textbook authoritarian maneuver, the President now invokes emergency powers to militarize the seat of government and override the authority and decisions of D.C.’s elected officials. He of course does nothing to address the statehood petition of the District’s disenfranchised population of 700,000 taxpaying American citizens.
“To be clear, this escalation has nothing to do with fighting crime. President Trump has made clear that he would like to expand these efforts beyond the Capital City, to take over American cities like Chicago, Oakland, and Baltimore, where his constitutional and legal authority would be even more dubious.
“I will be introducing a Resolution in the House, pursuant to the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973, to reverse this plainly ridiculous state of local emergency and restore full home rule powers to the Mayor, Council and people of the District of Columbia.”