Barr says he didn’t give tactical order to clear protesters.
On Friday, Barr told the AP that both he and U.S. Park Police were in agreement on the need to push back the security perimeter. He said he attended a meeting around 2 p.m. Monday with several other law enforcement officials, including Metropolitan Police Chief Peter Newsham, where they looked at a map and decided on a dividing line.
Still, he said he did not give the officers the orders to proceed — they were already in the process of doing so when he showed up. Barr said it was a Park Police tactical commander — an official he never spoke to — who gave the order for the law enforcement agencies to move in and clear the protesters.
Barr insisted there was no connection between the heavy-handed crackdown on the protesters and Trump's walk soon after to St. John's Church. The attorney general said he had learned in the afternoon that Trump wanted to go outside, and said that when he went to the White House in the evening, he learned of the president's intended destination.
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