Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency who was placed in charge of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department Thursday night, will not serve as the interim police chief — at least, for now — after the Trump administration reached a deal with District of Columbia lawyers at an emergency court hearing on Friday to keep the current D.C. police chief, Pamela Smith, in charge.
Legal representatives for both parties agreed to rewrite sections of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s executive order placing Cole at the helm of the MPD, after District Court Judge Ana Reyes signaled that, if the two sides didn’t reach an agreement, she would issue a temporary restraining order striking down the part of the executive order which placed Cole in charge.
After both sides discussed the issue privately for more than an hour, a lawyer for the Department of Justice said they were rewriting portions of the executive order that declared Cole the commissioner of the police department.