The United States Department of Justice has requested that a federal judge dismiss charges against former President Donald Trump and former Attorney General Anthony Barr for dispersing a crowd of demonstrators in Washington, D.C. last summer.
The incident in question took place on June 1, 2020 just a few hours before the sun went down in the nation’s capital. A group of seemingly peaceful and unarmed demonstrators gathered outside of the White House in Lafayette Square to protest police brutality in the U.S. As the crowd stood in the area, former President Donald Trump and former Attorney General Anthony Barr decided it was appropriate to use chemical agents rubber bullets to break up the group. Demonstrators ran in fear and members of Trump’s security detail emerged from out of the White House. The former President elected to walk across the street and take pictures in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church.
Outraged by what took place, Washington, D.C. chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, Black Lives Matter and other civil rights organizations filed lawsuits against Trump, Barr and the Washington, D.C. police force. Nearly a year later, the DOJ is no working to have these lawsuits thrown out. In response, attorneys representing the ACLU have said that dismissing the lawsuit is a move to “authorize brutality with impunity” in America. U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich has said that he will decided whether or not to dismiss the lawsuit “in the near future.”
