The administration of US President Donald Trump has reversed course and agreed to leave the Washington, DC police chief in control of the department, after Washington officials and the United States Justice Department negotiated a deal at the urging of a federal judge.

Trump had placed Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) under federal control on Monday and ordered the deployment of 800 National Guard troops onto the streets of the capital, claiming a surge in crime.

On Friday afternoon, a deal was hammered out at a federal court hearing after Washington, DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb had sought a court order blocking Trump’s police takeover as illegal.

Trump administration lawyers conceded that Pamela Smith, the police chief appointed by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, would

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