The attorney general said it was necessary after “very serious rioting” that injured law enforcement officers and damaged structures.
Attorney General William Barr is firmly defending his controversial decision to use force to clear largely peaceful protesters from streets near the White House on Monday, saying it was a necessary move to gain control following “very serious rioting” over the weekend that resulted in injuries to law enforcement personnel and damage to structures in the area.
At a Justice Department news conference on Thursday, Barr said that more than 100 security officials were injured in Washington over the weekend amid demonstrations protesting the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. The attorney general alleged that individuals in Lafayette Park, just north of the White House, used crowbars to dig pavers from the ground and then hurled them, resulting in head injuries to those behind the police lines.
“We decided that we needed more of a buffer to protect the White House and to protect our agents and Secret Service personnel who could be reached by projectiles from H Street,” Barr said, flanked by the heads of five federal law enforcement agencies. “I made the decision that we would try to move our perimeter northward by one block to provide this additional protection.”
On Monday evening, officers with the U.S. Park Police used shields and chemical irritants to force the protesters and journalists off the street north of the park. The phalanx of police even drove religious leaders from St. John’s church off the church’s portico. The actions drew outrage that escalated to public fury after President Donald Trump strode through the just-cleared area to conduct a photo-op outside the church, which suffered damage from a fire set there over the weekend.
In Barr’s first public comments on the episode, he insisted that the decision to expand the secure perimeter came Monday morning and had nothing to do with Trump’s visit to the church. The attorney general expressed no regrets about his actions, but he suggested that the conflict with protesters might have been minimized if the expansion had taken place earlier in the day.
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Attorney General William Barr is firmly defending his decision to use force to clear largely peaceful protesters from streets near the White House on Monday, saying it was a necessary move to gain control following “very serious rioting” https://t.co/ZMpz5Hh3sh
— POLITICO (@politico) June 4, 2020
I think that’s a lie. Yeah. It’s a lie. https://t.co/hCSJAuM9Uv
— Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) June 4, 2020
Barr is going to be in the bunker with Trump until the end. https://t.co/UrxlCh5xlk
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) June 5, 2020
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