PROTESTS: “The U.S. Park Police did not clear protesters from a park outside the White House so then-President Donald Trump could take a photo-op at a nearby church, an Interior Department inspector general’s report found…
Trump walked to St. John’s Church, which had been damaged the day before during protests over racial injustice. As he did, law enforcement violently cleared what had been mostly peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park.
As those scenes unfolded, Trump posed for photographs, holding up a Bible outside the church…
The incident commander said the Park Police wanted to clear the area to erect the fence and de-escalate the situation. He added that the Attorney General was ‘not in his chain of command’ and that clearing the park had ‘nothing to do with [him] or the President wanting to come out.’”
-Domenico Montanaro, “Watchdog Report Says Police Did Not Clear Protesters To Make Way For Trump Photo-Op,” npr.org, June 9, 2021