DOJ asks judge to toss lawsuit against Trump, Barr for violent clearing of Lafayette Square

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/trump-lafayette-square-civil-lawsuit/2021/05/28/c413c840-bfb3-11eb-b26e-53663e6be6ff_story.html

Lawyers for the Justice Department urged a federal judge on Friday to dismiss lawsuits against former president Donald Trump, former attorney general William P. Barr and other officials for last June’s violent clearing of demonstrators from Lafayette Square by U.S. military and police.

Trump and other U.S. officials are immune from civil lawsuits over police actions taken to protect a president and to secure his movements, government lawyers said of the actions taken ahead of a photo op of Trump holding a Bible in front of the historic St. John’s Church. A crowd of more than 1,000 largely peaceful demonstrators were protesting the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis before the park was cleared.

A year to the week after Floyd’s death, Justice Department lawyers argued that the lawsuits should also be tossed because last November’s presidential election made future violations unlikely. The government said the square has been reopened, and President Biden’s administration does not share Trump’s stated hostility toward Floyd and the racial justice movement.

The American Civil Liberties Union of D.C., Black Lives Matter, other civil liberties groups and individual protesters accuse Trump and senior officials of driving the June 1 events. Military, federal and local police forcibly cleared the square using batons, clubs, horses, pepper spray, smoke and fired projectiles 30 minutes before a citywide curfew began. Images of violence drew a national backlash against Trump’s calls for “overwhelming force” to put down those he called “THUGS” and domestic terrorists. The nation’s top military official later apologized for walking with Trump before television cameras that day.

*snip*

[temporary311]

1. Starting to understand why

Democrats thought Garland would be an acceptable SCJ to Republicans.

[tritsofme]

19. Oh please, give me a fucking break.

[Progressive Jones]

2. More horse shit. nt

[ananda]

3. That is VERY disappointing!

Why would they do that?

[Midnight Writer]

4. No. Please do not make this Standard Operating Procedure for Chief Executives.

We're still dealing with bogus legal opinions from the Nixon Justice Department, all in the name of protecting the DOJ and continuity.

If we don't make it clear, through civil and criminal penalties, that this crap is unacceptable, it will just keep repeating.

[PSPS]

5. This plus the continued hiding of the Barr coverup memo is destroying my support for Biden.

[triron]

17. I'm beginning to wonder about Garland. This is just plain ridiculous.

[PSPS]

20. Maybe he had to crumble during confirmation. Just one senator can kill a confirmation with a "hold"

[stillcool]

6. it isn't the police actions that were taken

it's the orders that were given.

[enough]

7. Same as it ever was. NT

[dixiechiken1]

8. This ☝️☝️☝️

[PortTack]

9. Paragraph #2. It may be the courts would not be able to move forward with this

This is not Biden’s doing.

I will at least wait until we have the whole picture b4 pointing fingers

[Hugh_Lebowski]

10. On the other hand, don't we want the DoJ to be independent unlike how it was under Barr?

When it goes to put the hammer down on something important, decisions on not-so-important things like this will give DoJ a lot of credibility.

So there's that ... even though it's freaking annoying as hell in this moment.

[Autumn]

12. Is it really independent though when the DOJ asks a judge to drop lawsuits brought against

our leaders ordering violent actions against peaceful citizens?

[Hugh_Lebowski]

13. Well, one can't really make the claim that DoJ is in Democrat's back pocket

as could be said pretty fairly about Barr for much of his term.

So there's that.

This is pretty much S.O.P. for the DoJ so part of me takes a bit of heart that they're back to normal rather than the right arm of the President. It shouldn't be no matter who is in charge of the Executive or Congress.

[uponit7771]

11. Yeah, BLM & DCACLU deserve a no bullshit reason why this is being done. Come on, these things

... shouldn't need interpretation at every step and seeing Barr was a criminal why call it precedent?

Paywall so can't sok can't read the rest of the article...

[Fullduplexxx]

14. Meet the new boss same as the old boss

[Solly Mack]

15. They mean to secure a political stunt that intentionally used excessive force for no reason

other than for the cameras.

Damn

[smirkymonkey]

16. WHY?

I really want to know? WTF!? I am so sick of this shit. Is everyone in on this?

[triron]

18. I am.