06.01.23

On Anniversary of June 1 Crackdown on Peaceful Protesters in Lafayette Square, Ranking Member Grijalva Releases Report with New Evidence on the Trump Administration’s Involvement

Washington, D.C. – House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and minority staff today released an investigation report titled, “Bible Beating: The Trump Administration’s Violent Crackdown on Peaceful Protestors in Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020,” on the third anniversary of the incident.

CLICK HERE for the full report.

On June 1, 2020, during a peaceful protest in Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Square, law enforcement officers from various federal agencies and units, including the U.S. Park Police (USPP), conducted a violent, sudden clearing of protestors nearly half an hour before the city’s 7:00 p.m. curfew. Immediately after the clearing operation, President Trump walked across the square to St. John’s Church, where he posed for photographs while holding a Bible. Extensive public backlash ensued, but the American people have never been given a full explanation of the incident.

Based on a comprehensive review of documents, testimony, information, and PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED EVIDENCE, the report provides a thorough record of the events on June 1, 2020 and details two primary investigation findings:

  1. The Trump administration’s stated justifications for the violent, sudden clearing operation are not credible. Amid public backlash, the Trump administration repeatedly shifted between two explanations: 1) the violent nature of the clearing operation was justified given protester behavior; and 2) the sudden, pre-curfew timing of the clearing operation was necessary to install security fencing around Lafayette Square. This report finds that neither of these justifications adequately explains the events of that day.

 

  1. President Trump likely instructed Attorney General Bill Barr to direct the violent, sudden clearing operation for his photo op at St. John’s Church. Previously unreleased evidence sheds new light on Attorney General Bill Barr’s influence on the sudden timing of the clearing operation. For example, in a private interview, a Metropolitan Police Department official recalled asking the USPP’s incident commander whether the clearing operation could wait until the 7:00 p.m. curfew, to which the incident commander responded, “The Attorney General is here. We gotta go now.” That interaction occurred at approximately 6:12 p.m.

On releasing the report, Ranking Member Grijalva said, “June 1 will forever live in infamy as the day that a sitting president turned U.S. law enforcement against the very people they are sworn to protect. Our first amendment rights are a sacred part of our democracy, but as this report makes clear, the Trump administration deemed it more important to play out the president’s vindictive battle fantasies against peaceful protestors than to protect those rights. Let this report add to the continually mounting evidence that the Trump administration’s ‘governance’ consisted of granting favors and opening doors for their friends—including violent insurrectionists—while actively oppressing anyone who disagreed with them, even with physical force.”

Additional Background

The peaceful protest on June 1, 2020, was part of a nationwide—and global—response to the murder of George Floyd by police officers on May 25, a crime that grimly illustrated U.S. law enforcement’s history of systemic racism and violence against black lives. Conservative estimates suggest 15 to 26 million Americans took part, making it the largest protest movement in U.S. history by number of participants. 

The report provides overwheling evidence that, although the protesters were peaceful on June 1, the Trump administration’s response was both unjustifiably violent and unjustifiably sudden. As described in the report, former President Trump’s communications on that morning indicated an intent to send a symbolic message of strength against protesters. News that the president had retreated to a White House bunker during the previous day’s protest had reportedly incensed President Trump, causing him to demand—in war-like terms—that law enforcement “dominate the streets.”

Mere months later, on Jan. 6, 2021, President Trump gave a speech that incited a mob of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. When he finally tweeted a video instructing the rioters to go home—a full 187 minutes after his speech—he told the mob, “We love you. You’re very special.”