DC lawsuit challenges Trump’s National Guard deployment as a forced ‘military occupation’

WASHINGTON (AP) — The District of Columbia on Thursday sued to stop President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard during his law enforcement intervention in Washington, with the city’s top legal official saying the surge of troops amounts to a forced “military occupation.”

Brian Schwalb, the district’s elected attorney general, said in the federal lawsuit that the deployment, which now involves more than 1,000 troops, is an illegal use of the military for domestic law enforcement.

“No American jurisdiction should be involuntarily subjected to military occupation,” Schwalb wrote.

The Republican president has already said he plans to send the National Guard into Chicago and Baltimore, despite staunch opposition in those Democrat-led cities, and the White House said deploying the Guard to protect federal assets and assist law enforcement is within Trump’s authority as president.

“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,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.

Members of the D.C. National Guard have had their orders extended through December, according to a Guard official. While that does not necessarily mean all those troops will serve that long, it is a strong indication that their role will not wind down soon.

A federal judge in California ruled on Tuesday that Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles after protests over immigration raids in June was illegal. It does not directly apply to Washington, where the president has more control over the Guard than in states.

Several GOP-led states have added National Guard troops to the ranks of those patrolling the streets and neighborhoods of the nation’s capital.

Schwalb’s filing contends the deployment also violates the Home Rule Act, signed by President Richard Nixon in 1973, and wrongly asserts federal control over units from other states.

The lawsuit is the second from Schwalb — whose office is separate from Washington’s federal U.S. attorney, a presidential appointee — against the Trump administration since Trump asserted control over the city’s police department and sent in the Guard. Those actions have been with protests from some residents.

Trump has said the operation is necessary to combat crime in the district, and Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, has pointed to a steep drop in offenses such as carjackings since it began.

Violent crime has been an issue in the capital for years, though data showed it was on the decline when Trump intervened with an executive order on Aug. 11.

Lindsay Whitehurst, The Associated Press