# The National Guard in Washington > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The National Guard in Washington," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-national-guard-in-washington/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's response to the August 2025 federalisation of the District of Columbia police, a decision he says was taken without informing the mayor or the police chief, in a city where crime was falling, and which he expected to expire after three days for want of congressional authorisation.* - **What happened:** Federalisation of the D.C. police force, with National Guard support - **Who was not told:** Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. police chief - **The crime picture, per Kiriakou:** Murders down; violent crime overall down 37% - **The legal limit he cites:** Three days, then congressional authorisation is required - **The obstacle:** Congress was not in session - **His verdict:** "This is a publicity stunt. Literally nothing is going to come of it." - **What he said he would do:** Tell every Guardsman he saw: "You should be ashamed of yourself" **The National Guard in Washington** was the federalisation of the District of Columbia police force in August 2025, and the first subject John Kiriakou took up on the DeProgram programme that day.[1] ## His personal response Kiriakou announced a decision before analysing the policy. *"I made a decision today when I heard that Donald Trump was federalising the Washington DC police force and taking over police duties in Washington with the help of the National Guard."* Because he lives *"three miles from the White House"*, he expected to encounter them: *"I'm going to go up to every National Guardsman that I see and I'm going to say, 'You should be ashamed of yourself. If there was ever a time to stand up and say no, now's the time, you gutless pigs.'"*[1] ## The stated justification He disputes the premise of a crime emergency, and doubts it is sincerely held: Trump *"has gotten it into his head that crime is out of control. Actually, he probably hasn't even gotten it into his head. He's just faking it."*[2] The figures he gives run the other way: *"DC does not have a crime problem. Murders are down. Violent crimes overall are down 37%. We have no crime problem in Washington right now."*[2] He also notes who was left out of the decision: *"He didn't bother to inform Mayor Muriel Bowser. He didn't bother to inform the DC police chief. He just announced that he's taken it over and that's it."*[2] ## The three-day limit Kiriakou says he checked the authority, *"so I looked this up"*, and found it narrow. The president *"absolutely can do"* it, but only *"for a period of three days. He can take it over for three days and then he has to get congressional authorisation."*[2][3] The obstacle was procedural. *"Well, guess what? Congress isn't in session. And so remember, they all ran away so they wouldn't have to vote on the Epstein release."*[3] He suspects the check was never made: *"I wonder if they didn't check that. I suspect they didn't check it. And so this is a publicity stunt. Literally nothing is going to come of it."*[3] ## The homeless On the accompanying promise to clear homeless people from the streets, Kiriakou's objection was that nothing had been said about where they would go: *"No word on what that means or where you're going to send them. You going to send them to Maryland? ... I don't know. And it doesn't make any sense."*[4] He is not, however, dismissive of the underlying conditions, having noted separately that homelessness in the capital is a real problem even as the response to it is a stunt.[4] ## See also - [The Lafayette Square tents](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-lafayette-square-tents) - [The third-term workaround](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-third-term-workaround) - [Donald Trump](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donald-trump) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 02:33. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=153s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 03:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=186s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 03:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=216s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 04:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=246s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-national-guard-in-washington/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt