TRUMP SUED
Black Lives Matter SUES Trump administration over removal of DC protesters near White House before church visit
BLACK Lives Matter has sued the Trump administration over removal of George Floyd protesters in Washington DC before the president's church visit.
The American Civil Liberties Union and others alleged that officials violated the civil rights of protesters who were forcefully removed from a park near by using chemical agents.
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The lawsuit was filed on Thursday in a federal court in on behalf of the group Black Lives Matter DC, and individual protesters who were in Lafayette Park on Monday evening.
It argues that , and other officials unlawfully conspired to violate the protesters rights when clearing Lafayette Park on Monday.
Shortly before 6.30pm on Monday, law enforcement officers began aggressively forcing back the peaceful protesters, firing smoke bombs and pepper balls into the crowd to disperse them from the park.
The ACLU called it a coordinated and unprovoked charge into the crowd of demonstrators.
, Trump claimed that the protesters were not tear-gassed.
However, Barr said on Thursday that he ordered the protesters to be dispersed because officials were supposed to extend a security perimeter around the White House earlier in the day.
He said he arrived there later in the afternoon and discovered it hadn't been done.
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Monday's scene was aired .
A short time after the alleged tear-gassing, Trump was seen walking from the through the area to the 200-year-old church, alongside his daughter , his son-in-law Jared Kushner, , and other administration officials.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who was part of the entourage, said he wasn't told they were going as they walked through the plaza to the church.
"I thought I was going to do two things: to see some damage and to talk to the troops," Esper . "I didn't know where I was going. I wanted to see how much damage actually happened."
A Pentagon spokesperson later said Esper was told where he was going, but that Esper didn't know Trump was going to use the moment as a photo-op.
Trump posed in front of St John's with the Bible, before leaving a short time later; he didn't enter the church.
The , which was blazed by arsonists on Sunday night, as a photo opportunity “prop."
Gini Gerbasi, a rector at St John’s Church, revealed in a Facebook post that she and other Black Lives Matter organizers had been giving out water and help to protesters alongside fellow clergy and laypeople, when police swarmed the area, pushing protesters, deploying tear gas, and firing rubber bullets.
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Gerbasi said: “That man turned it into a BATTLE GROUND first, and a cheap political stunt second.”
She added: “Friends, I am ok, but I am, frankly shaken... Around 6:15 or 6:30, the police started really pushing protesters off of H Street... They started using tear gas and folks were running at us for eyewashes or water or wet paper towels.”
On Tuesday night, on the protesters, and said they took the steps “to curtail the violence that was underway."
Police said "violent protestors on H Street NW began throwing projectiles including bricks, frozen water bottles, and caustic liquids."
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“The protestors also climbed onto a historic building at the north end of Lafayette Park that was destroyed by arson days prior. Intelligence had revealed calls for violence against the police, and officers found caches of glass bottles, baseball bats, and metal poles hidden along the street.”
Reporters at the scene said bricks and frozen water bottles were not seen being thrown.
Trump on Wednesday said "the church leaders love that I went there with a Bible."
He said authorities "moved" out protesters before he walked over to the church, adding: "Now when I went, I didn't say move them out."
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"I didn't know who was there," Trump said. "Most religious leaders loved it."
Trump asked, "Why wouldn't they loved it?" and added: "I was standing in front of a church that went through trauma."
When questioned about whether he would have gone inside the church to examine the damage, Trump said he couldn't, as it was "boarded up."
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