Attorney General Barr should resign if Lafayette Square was a photo-op: Jonathan Turley
WASHINGTON — Georgetown Law Professor Jonathan Turley, a Republican star witness against the impeachment of President Trump, told the House Natural Resources Committee that while the order to forcibly removed peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. on June 1 was likely legal, it was also bad optics.
“If Attorney General Barr cleared that area for the purpose of the photo op, I would immediately call for him to step down, because that would be an outrageous abuse of power,” Turley said, noting he’s known Barr for decades.
Shortly after federal officers on June 1 cleared protesters from Lafayette Square using chemical gases, pepper balls and sprays, President Donald Trump walked from the White House to hold up a Bible in front of cameras by the St. John’s Church, just across the street from the park.
The USPP and Attorney General William Barr have said that there was a plan two days before the June 1 clearing to install fencing around the White House complex, an explanation Democrats widely dismiss as an explanation to justify an attack on protesters.
Although multiple reports say the point of the sweep was for the photo op, Turley argued that clearing the square could be justified because the Park Police reported some 50 officers suffering injuries in prior days, and the church had suffered arson.
However, he questioned whether police concerns were the sole issue because Park Police and other mostly unidentified federal forces pushed protesters and media well beyond the bounds of the park.
"Whether the President's photo op played a role in the size of the perimeter, the decision to move people all the way to I Street, for example, those are things that are legitimate questions," Turley said. "If this was done to intimidate people, you know, this would be a serious problem."
While federal forces moved in with pepper gas bombs, batons, flash bangs and rubber bullets, Trump had been delivering a speech in the Rose Garden denouncing protests in the wake of the George Floyd killing, saying the government and National Guard had to "dominate the streets."
The Park Police declined to attend the hearing, citing pending legal cases.
One witness was Australian TV reporter Amelia Brace, who was seen on camera with her cameraman getting battered by police. She testified that not only did she not hear a warning, but that police targeted her and her cameraman before and after the infamous scene caught on camera where a cop slams a shield into the cameraman's gut then punches him.
Even as they were fleeing area where they and other reporters were supposed to be, another officer went out of his way to beat her with a truncheon, she said.
"The attack on the Australian journalists appeared entirely unjustified and unlawful," Turley told the panel.
The Episcopal Bishop of Washington, the Rev. Mariann Budde, also hammered the entire episode.
“When the president held up a Bible outside our church, as if to claim the mantle of spiritual authority over what had just transpired, I knew that I had to speak,” Budde said. “Nowhere does the Bible condone the use of violence against the innocent.”
With Wire Service
