WASHINGTON (CN) — Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday defended the Trump administration’s use of federal agents to respond to racial justice protests, as Democrats accused him of seeking conflict in the streets and using the Justice Department to aid the president’s re-election bid.
Appearing before the House Judiciary Committee, Barr said federal authorities that have violently clashed with protesters in cities like Portland, Oregon, have merely been protecting federal property under attack from a small group of people taking advantage of otherwise peaceful protests to do violence.
The scenes out of Portland amid ongoing protests for racial justice spurred by the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody have captured stark images of conflicts between protesters and law enforcement, including federal agents who have fired tear gas into crowds.
Videos have shown federal agents, some of whom were not wearing identifying information, beating and using pepper spray on protesters and arresting demonstrators, sometimes from unmarked vehicles and without providing a reason.
The response from federal agents has spawned waves of lawsuits and concerns from civil liberties groups. Democrats on Tuesday suggested the deployment is meant to heighten tensions in an election year with the aim of stirring up the president’s base and aid his re-election chances.
Representative Steve Cohen, who has introduced a resolution to launch an impeachment inquiry against Barr, said federal agents have gone too far in their actions against protesters in cities across the country, threatening important constitutional principles and norms.
“In Portland we’ve seen mothers and we’ve seen veterans who were peacefully protesting, not threatening the federal courthouse, beaten and gassed,” Cohen said. “Unidentified armed federal agents violently attack demonstrators in a violation of the First Amendment’s freedom of assembly and arrested citizens without individualized suspicion in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures and warrant requirement. You’ve gone through the Fifth Amendment and due process and just negated it.”
Defending the federal agents, Barr said that alongside peaceful protests, some people have set fires outside the Portland courthouse that has become a flashpoint in the conflict, launched fireworks at the building and flashed laser pointers and thrown projectiles at the officers inside.
He told Representative Jim Jordan that he does not believe the courthouse would be standing today without the federal agents.
“The U.S. marshals have a duty to stop that and defend the courthouse and that’s what we are doing in Portland,” Barr said Tuesday. “We are at the courthouse defending the courthouse. We’re not out looking for trouble.”
The incidents in Portland come amid larger concerns about how the Trump administration has responded to protests following Floyd’s death. Democrats also pressed Barr on the controversial clearing of Lafayette Square outside the White House on June 1, ahead President Donald Trump’s photo opportunity outside the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church.
Barr told the committee the use of tear gas on a group of mostly peaceful protesters was meant to push the perimeter back a block so authorities could set up fencing around the square, which is across the street from the White House and is the site of frequent protests. Barr said that the decision to move the perimeter was reached the night before, when some demonstrators set a fire in the church.
In the face of Barr’s defense of the federal response to protests, Representative Pramila Jayapal accused Barr of inconsistency. She noted the Justice Department did not appear concerned when armed demonstrators, including some white supremacists, entered the Michigan statehouse in protest of the state’s actions to limit the spread of Covid-19.
