The ranking Republicans of two House committees are accusing D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser of handing over the streets of D.C. to “violent left-wing extremists and agitators.” At the same time, the mayor is facing criticism at home for her recent law-and-order approach to policing protests.

In a letter sent Wednesday, Representatives Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and James Comer (R-Kentucky) condemned Bowser for her “inaction” in response to recent protests. The two called for the mayor to turn over “all documents and communications referring or relating to D.C.’s response, if any, to violent left-wing agitators harassing peaceful individuals within D.C. between June, 2020 and the present.”

The mayor’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.

Echoing criticism of cities made by President Donald Trump, Jordan and Comer—the ranking members on the House Judiciary Committee and Oversight Committee, respectively—describe D.C. as a city lost to “mayhem,” where Bowser’s leadership has “allowed radical left-wing violent extremists to commit senseless acts of violence and destruction,” linking to coverage of recent protests in D.C.

The letter cites a recent interaction between protesters and a customer at a D.C. diner, and a confrontation with Rand Paul while he left the Republican National Convention last week, both of which went viral when videos were posted online. The letter also harkens to last Saturday’s demonstrations in D.C. where some protesters toppled newspaper boxes and set small fires.

According to reporter Abdallah Fayyad, who was on the scene that night, tension escalated after a protester was arrested in Black Lives Matter Plaza, and police repeatedly deployed stun grenades and chemical irritants. Some protesters who have been attending demonstrations since May told DCist it was the most aggressive police response to a protest they’d seen yet.

The president, his campaign surrogates, and other conservatives have described cities run by Democratic politicians as essentially lawless or “destroyed” after recent protests.

Meanwhile, Bowser is facing opposing criticism from a federal attorney and local activists for her recent calls for prosecutorial crack-downs.

In a press conference on Monday, Bowser attributed Saturday night’s clashes with police to “outside agitators” who came “armed for battle” with laser pointers and baseball bats. (Jordan and Comer also requested information about “whether the perpetrators of the recent violence intimidation within D.C. have been paid or otherwise induced to commit these acts of violence by a third party.”)

Bowser wrote to U.S. Attorney for D.C. Michael Sherwin, accusing the office of failing to prosecute cases of assaults on police and destruction of property.  Sherwin wrote back, claiming that D.C.’s police department lacked evidence to prosecute 18 of the 19 demonstrators arrested on Saturday, as MPD had “failed to provide the bare minimum of articulable facts linking the charged persons with alleged individual criminal conduct.” Sherwin noted that MPD had presented similarly unsubstantial evidence in the arrests of 42 protesters in June. 

“Simply put, we cannot charge crimes on the basis of mere presence or guilt by association,” he wrote.

On Wednesday, Black Lives Matter D.C. released a statement on Bowser’s call for prosecutorial crack-downs and Sherwin’s response, calling Bowser’s Monday remarks a “drama-filled press conference,” that “highlights her own hypocrisy of fighting for DC Statehood.” Their statement also criticized Bowser’s transferring of criminal cases into federal court and her call to bring in D.C. National Guard troops during protests earlier this summer.

“Bowser stood before the entire country overlooking her mural during the 2020 Democratic National Convention and condemned the military force used against protestors fighting for racial justice on Lafayette Square (and Black Lives Matter Plaza),” their statement reads. “However, it was Bowser who first activated the District’s National Guard to support MPD in controlling the protests in DC.”

D.C. statehood—a topic rejected by Republican lawmakers, some of whom don’t think “real people” live in the city—also received a nod in Jordan and Comer’s letter, where they link Bowser’s “choice to surrender the streets of D.C. to left-wing extremists” to an argument against statehood.

“Your actions also highlight the wisdom of the Founders to ensure that the seat of the federal government is not beholden to a particular state,” they write.

Jordan and Comer demand that Bowser produce the requested documents by Sept. 16.

The letter marks this week’s most recent condemnation of Bowser by GOP members. On Tuesday, she came under fire when a working group she commissioned recommended more than 50 public sites in D.C. (including federal monuments) be renamed, removed, or contextualized due to their ties to slavery and racism. The Bowser administration later removed the federal monuments from the report amid the backlash.

Jordan and other Republicans have used their perch on Capitol Hill to lambast D.C. before, as they did in 2019 when they requested a congressional investigation into former Ward 2 Councilmember and Metro board chair Jack Evans and later said that D.C. does not merit statehood because of the ethics scandals Evans was involved in.