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A Federal Judge ruled that Trump, Barr nor other Trump administration officials can be sued for clearing BLM protesters from Lafayette Square last year, according to The New York Post.
US District Judge Dabney Friedrich threw out the majority of claims alleging that there was unnecessary force being used to clear the park.
Police used rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades, and tear gas to clear out the protesters.
Protesters were cleared from the park just before Trump walked through the area.
Trump walked through the park to get to the location where h gave a speech.
During his speech, he held a Holy Bible up high In his right hand as he spoke.
The St. John’s Church, which is where he gave his speech, was vandalized just the night before by BLM protesters.
Friedrich, the federal judge dismissed claims that alleged that Trump and his administration attempted to violate protesters’ civil rights by clearing the park with such precision and force.
“In this context, it matters not whether the national security risk actually justified the particular action taken.”
“Rather, the question is whether ‘national-security concerns’ were present in the decision-making process the federal officials faced …”
“When it comes to managing crowd activity directly outside of the White House, decision-makers must weigh public, presidential, and White House security interests.”
From The New York Post:
The judge also ruled that lawsuits challenging ongoing restrictions on access to Lafayette Square can proceed. Entryways on the northern side of the park were quietly opened to the public last month, but the square itself remains fenced off.
Earlier this month, an internal investigation by the Interior Department found no evidence that the park was cleared so Trump could walk across to the church for a photo op, despite the claims of many Democrats and liberals.
A 37-page report from Interior Department Inspector General Mark Lee Greenblatt concluded that the protesters were removed so a contractor could install “antiscale fencing in response to destruction of property and injury to officers”. Greenblatt also concluded that officials “had begun implementing the operational plan several hours before they knew of a potential Presidential visit to the park.”
— Advertisement — The report determined that booting the protesters was justified, but law enforcement agencies on the scene failed to effectively communicate with each other and failed to communicate warnings to the protesters about the impending crackdown.
Trump has claimed that the protesters were cleared because the park had been overrun by violent rioters. Following the publication of Greenblatt’s report, the former president thanked the watchdog for “Completely and Totally exonerating me in the clearing of Lafayette Park!”
