The United States Department of Justice has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed against former President Donald Trump and former Justice Secretary William Barr, among others, according to the US newspaper The Washington Post.
The case revolved around the brutal riot police crackdown on peaceful protesters in front of the White House last year.
Trump and the rest of the indicted government officials should be considered immune to civil lawsuits involving police crackdowns designed to protect the president and give him ample room, ministry lawyers said.
The lawsuit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a leading American civil rights organization. The ACLU believes that the police action in front of the White House on June 1 is unacceptable. Protesters then demonstrated following the violent death of black detainee George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Among other things, federal police used tear gas to disperse protesters in Lafayette Square so Trump could be photographed in front of a nearby church, holding up a Bible. The prayer house, which belongs to the Episcopalian Church, had previously been slightly damaged as a result of arson. The court papers filed by the ACLU state that Trump, Secretary Barr, and other officials violated the protesters’ constitutional rights.
