A federal judge rejected lawsuit claims against federal officials related to the clearing of protesters from Lafayette Square near the White House last summer.
U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich dismissed protesters’ claims for damages against officials such as then-President Donald Trump, then-Attorney General William Barr, then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and others for their part in the day’s events, which included law enforcement pushing people out of the park using aggressive tactics.
LAFAYETTE PARK WAS NOT CLEARED FOR TRUMP PHOTO-OP, WATCHDOG FINDS
Friedrich said the plaintiffs, whose complaints were filed by groups such as American Civil Liberties Union of D.C. and Black Lives Matter, had not “plausibly alleged the existence of a conspiracy” between those officials who “targeted black people and their supporters” as the plaintiffs claimed.
The judge, a Trump appointee, will still allow the plaintiffs to pursue lawsuits against Washington, D.C., and Arlington County, Virginia.
Protesters also sought an injunction to bar similar use-of-force tactics against protesters in the future. That request was denied.
“The plaintiffs’ claims of impending future harm are too speculative to confer standing to seek an injunction,” Friedrich wrote in a decion. “Such harm would require that plaintiffs again demonstrate in Lafayette Square; that agencies headed by the official-capacity defendants again respond to the demonstration; that federal officers again use that law enforcement response as cover to deliberately target non-violent peaceful demonstrators; and that one or more of the plaintiffs again be targeted. This hypothetical chain of events is simply too speculative to confer standing for injunctive relief.”
The Justice Department under the Biden administration had urged the judge to dismiss the lawsuits against Trump and Barr.
This comes in response to protests that erupted in Washington, D.C., and other major cities across the country in the summer of 2020, shortly after George Floyd, a black man, died during an arrest by Minneapolis police after being pinned to the ground for more than nine minutes.
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After protesters were removed from Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020, then-President Trump walked to St. John’s Church, where a fire had been started the night before, for a photo opportunity in which he held a Bible next to top members of his administration. The Interior Department’s inspector general determined in a report released on June 8 of this year the park was not cleared to make way for the president’s appearance but rather to install new anti-scale fencing.
“Thank you to the Department of the Interior Inspector General for Completely and Totally exonerating me in the clearing of Lafayette Park,” Trump said in reaction to the report.
