White House deputy chief of staff for policy and US homeland security advisor Stephen Miller (R) speaks as US President Donald Trump delivers his 100th Day in office achievement speech at Macomb County Community College Sports Expo Center in Warren, Michigan, on April 29, 2025. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP) (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images) (JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
Pulliam formerly served as a police commander for the Metropolitan Police Department's Third District, which includes Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights.
The Pulliam investigation has become something of a political lightning rod in recent days, as Trump officials have pointed to the investigation and his leave as evidence that MPD has sought to manipulate or massage crime statistics in the nation's capital.
News of the AFL probe comes as President Donald Trump and White House officials have blasted what they describe as a "ridiculous" amount of crime in D.C., and claimed repeatedly that the crime statistics in question might not be an accurate portrayal of the situation on the ground — something critics argue is simply justification for the administration to push through its executive order.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told NewsNation in an interview earlier this week that Washington, D.C., "is more violent than Baghdad."
"As each day passes, new horrific examples of violent crime are reported across the district," AFL's lead attorney, Will Scolinos, told Fox News Digital in a statement. "AFL is investigating whether, as described by recent reports, official D.C. crime statistics may have been deliberately falsified to make the city seem safer than it is."
"President Trump has stepped up to make Washington D.C. safer for all residents and visitors to the nation’s capital—but the Left is lockstep in defending D.C. as ‘safe enough.'" Scolinos added. "Americans know better."
Trump, in his August 11 executive order, declared a "crime emergency" in the nation's capital. That order invokes Section 740 of D.C.'s Home Rule Act, saying that federal control of the Metropolitan Police Department is needed to maintain law and order in D.C to protect the nation's capital — including federal buildings, property, and monuments— and to ensure "conditions necessary" for the orderly functioning of the federal government.
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The White House in Washington, DC. (Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
D.C. officials, for their part, have conceded that the drop in violent crime might be overstated (data on the MPD website now shows a 26% drop between 2023 and 2024).
But they've pushed back on the notion that artificially deflated crime data is to blame. In an interview with NBC News earlier this week, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said that a recent review of all MPD crime data found 552 fewer victims of violent crime in the first eight months of 2025, compared to the same period in 2024. Crime is down across all seven districts, with anomalies in just one, she told NBC.
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"Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false," she said in a televised interview Sunday.
America First Legal, though not officially part of the Trump administration, was founded by longtime Trump advisor Stephen Miller after Trump's first presidential term. Miller stepped down from AFL before rejoining the White House in 2025 as Trump's deputy chief of staff.
Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/exclusive-trump-aligned-legal-group-sues-over-alleged-dc-crime-data-manipulation