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The U.S. Park Police and Secret Service violently defeated protesters in Lafayette Square last month without apparent provocation or adequate warning, immediately after Attorney General William Barr spoke to Park Police leaders , according to an Army National Guard officer who was there.
National Guard Major Adam DeMarco’s account challenges the Trump administration’s explanation for why federal forces beat and beat protesters and unleashed mounted chemical agents and agents to drive hundreds of people out of the plaza in front of the White House on June 1. The offensive against protesters came just before President Donald Trump walked through the area to organize a photographic event in front of a historic church.
DeMarco’s account was published in written testimony for his scheduled appearance Tuesday before the House’s Natural Resources Committee, which is investigating the use of force, and who directed it, against what appeared to be peaceful crowds in the plaza. that night. The National Guard officer is expected to invoke the Military Whistleblower Protection Act, which says in part that no one can block a member of the military from legal communications with Congress.
The committee’s chairman, Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat, said Monday that according to DeMarco’s written testimony, “it is quite obvious that calls were being made at the highest levels,” although the testimony does not give explicit details of no one giving orders. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday, but previously denied that law enforcement and security forces cleared the square to make way for Trump’s appearance before news cameras. The incident came close to the height of protests across the country over police killings of black people.
“From what I could see, the protesters were behaving peacefully,” when Park Police, the Secret Service and other unidentified forces turned against the crowd, DeMarco writes. The defeat began shortly after Barr and General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared in the plaza, where Barr appeared to be speaking to Park Police leaders, he says.
The legally required warnings to protesters before clearing the plaza shortly thereafter were “barely audible” from 20 yards (18 meters) away and did not appear to have been noticed by protesters, he said.
Park police and other officers suddenly began defeating the crowd without notifying the National Guard forces present, DeMarco said.
A Park Police liaison officer told DeMarco that his forces only used “stage smoke,” not tear gas, against the crowd. However, DeMarco said the itchy nose and eyes appeared to be tear gas, and said he found worn-out tear gas cans on the street later that night.
The National Park Service, which oversees the United States Park Police, responded Monday by repeating the statement by Park Police Chief Gregory T. Monahan last month that its officers acted to “reduce violence that was in progress. ” The Park Police, a force of a few hundred officers across the country, oversees a handful of the nation’s most iconic federal lands and monuments. Monahan is scheduled to testify publicly for the first time about the event at the committee hearing on Tuesday.
Videos and accounts by journalists and protesters present in the plaza, and now by the National Guard officer, challenge the Trump administration’s accounts that protesters were attacking security and police officers there at the time. Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly challenged the Trump administration to provide evidence of that.
Grijalva said lawmakers also asked for recordings of radio traffic from the security forces and police that night. The administration told them that a “technological problem” was preventing the recordings, he said.
DeMarco says he was the designated liaison at the event for the Interior Department Park Police and National Guard and that he was standing near a statue of Andrew Jackson, as Barr and other senior officials involved congregated.
DeMarco describes a quick conversation with Milley, the Pentagon’s top general, at the time in the plaza that, according to DeMarco, did not warn of the impending push by the Park Police, the Secret Service and others against the protesters.
“As the top National Guard officer on the scene at the time, I gave General Milley a brief briefing on our mission and the current situation,” writes DeMarco. “General Milley told me to ensure that National Guard personnel remain calm, adding that we were there to respect the First Amendment rights of protesters.”
Shortly after Park police and others forced protesters to flee, Milley walked in military uniform alongside Trump as the Republican President walked to the nearby St. John’s Church, where protesters had been accused of starting a fire in the basement of a building the night before. Trump briefly released a bible in the air for news cameras, underscoring his administration’s tough message against the protests.
Milley later apologized for participating, after strong public criticism. Milley said “she shouldn’t have been there” and her participation “created the perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”
DeMarco previously served in the United States Army, including a combat mission in Iraq. A candidate who matched his name and description ran for the Maryland Congress in 2018 and lost in the Democratic primary.
