{"id":42399,"date":"2026-08-13T04:51:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T23:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42399"},"modified":"2026-08-13T04:51:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T23:51:53","slug":"doj-slams-d-c-city-council-over-national-guard-withdrawal-request","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42399","title":{"rendered":"DOJ slams D.C. City Council over National Guard withdrawal request"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/washington_national_guard_081026gn08_w.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n        <iframe id=\"instaread_iframe\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Audio Article\" style=\"display:block\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n    <\/p>\n<p><\/instaread-player><\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department (DOJ) on Wednesday slammed the Washington, D.C., City Council over councillors\u2019 requests to remove the National Guard from the city\u2019s streets.<\/p>\n<p>Members of the D.C. City Council sent letters to governors in 10 states asking them to withdraw their National Guard members from the city early last month. One letter to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), obtained by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RebeccaTurcoTV\/status\/2075630154445946939\">7News DC<\/a>, asked her to recall the troops with the 250th anniversary festivities at an end.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald accused the City Council members of feigning ignorance \u201cof the historic public safety strides\u201d in the capital in <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheJusticeDept\/status\/2087644337274331313\">his own letter<\/a> to councillors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet me be clear, your council has no power to demand that governors remove their brave men and women from serving in uniform in our nation\u2019s capital,\u201d McDonald wrote. \u201cYour politically-movtivated letter is impotent theatrics not worth the paper it\u2019s written on and D.C. is a much safer place no matter what you say.<\/p>\n<p>McDonald went on to claim that crime in the city was likely \u201cundercounted\u201d and claimed the murder rate went down after the National Guard was deployed in August 2025. He added that the dropping crime rate aligned with the \u201ccomplete rehabilitation and beautification of the city\u2019s history, monuments and public spaces, and a total revitalization of the capital\u2019s commercial and downtown regions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou should withdraw your letters and dedicate your remaining time in public service to correcting D.C.\u2019s laws to ensure criminals are punished and the public is protected \u2013\u2013 not the other way around,\u201d McDonald concludes his letter. \u201cMy office is available to assist you in this regard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Hill has reached out to the D.C. City Council for comment.<\/p>\n<p>McDonald\u2019s letter was sent to council members the same day that FBI Director Kash Patel touted several statistics about safety in the city, saying that there have been \u201c6,121 arrests, nearly 2,000 drug seizures, 1,300+ illegal firearms seized, 237 search warrants executed, $252,000+ in cash recovered, HOMICIDES DOWN 44 percent\u201d in a post on the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FBIDirectorKash\/status\/2087624339667517651?s=20\">social platform X<\/a>. <\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cOne year into the President\u2019s initiative, the numbers speak for themselves,\u201d Patel wrote. <\/p>\n<p>Tuesday marked one year since President Trump deployed the National Guard in Washington. He <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/administration\/6022054-donald-trump-national-guard-dc-deployment-center-for-american-progress-criticism\/\">lashed out<\/a> at the liberal think tank, the Center for American Progress, on Monday after it released a report showing that the city\u2019s violent crimes were already on the decline before the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCrime is way down since I took Office, and they know it,\u201d the president wrote on Truth Social, saying he will file a lawsuit against the Center for American Progress. \u201cLiars, at this level, must be held accountable!\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>The report\u2019s author, Chandler Hall, on Monday said on C-SPAN that it was \u201cunfortunate\u201d that Trump \u201cis continuing to still choose to boast\u201d that the deployments are bringing results when it comes to public safety. <\/p>\n<p>Hall\u2019s report concluded that the deployment cost $1.7 billion. Last week, the <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/defense\/6009052-pentagon-guard-dc-cost-soars\/\">Washington Post reported<\/a> that the deployment is projected to cost another $1.4 billion through the end of Trump\u2019s term in 2029.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Justice Department (DOJ) on Wednesday slammed the Washington, D.C., City Council over councillors\u2019 requests to remove the National Guard from the city\u2019s streets. Members of the D.C. City Council sent letters to governors in 10 states asking them to withdraw their National Guard members from the city early last month. One letter to Michigan&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/washington_national_guard_081026gn08_w.jpg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}