WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s internal watchdog released a damning report Wednesday criticizing former Attorney General William Barr for overseeing a “chaotic and disorganized” response to protests, riots and unrest in the nation’s capital after 2020. The murder of George Floyd.
The report found Barr, who was President Donald Trump’s attorney general in 2019 and 2020, “pressured the law enforcement components of the DoJ to deploy personnel without paying enough attention to whether those personnel were properly trained or equipped for their missions.”
In response to protests, the Justice Department’s inspector general criticized the deployment of government agents who don’t wear uniforms that mark their agency, let alone wear name tags or numbers that allow them to be individually identified if they use excessive force. in 2020.
“We are concerned that the Department’s leadership has made decisions that require DOJ law enforcement and elite tactical units to conduct missions that lack the necessary equipment and training,” the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General report said. “Many witnesses also told us that management did not communicate these deployment decisions in a timely and effective manner to subordinates and non-DOJ agencies involved in the response.”
It was Barr’s idea to bring in federal prison officials to manage civil protests, even though those officials had no experience with such situations and were used to managing riots in carceral institutions where, unlike free America, people were sentenced as criminals with limited constitutional rights. Citizens with full rights under the Constitution.
At the time, a senior Justice Department official praised Barr’s action, saying it “reverses”out of the box” thinking and saying that they do “miracles” with logical elements.
But many experts, including a former Justice Department inspector general, have simultaneously criticized the approach, particularly the deployment of anonymous federal agents from an unknown agency to patrol the streets of Washington during a volatile situation.
“In general, we shared the serious concerns expressed to us by law enforcement officials and were most concerned about the Department’s decision to place DOJ law enforcement agents and elite tactical units close to the public and require them to carry out missions. They lacked the necessary equipment and training,” the report said.
“Many law enforcement witnesses told us that these deployment decisions were made hastily and without sufficient understanding and prioritization of the capabilities of those deployed, and that management did not communicate their decisions in a timely and effective manner to subordinates and other unspecified individuals. – DOJ agencies involved in the response,” he said.
The directives from Justice Department leaders have led to a “derailment of standard practices,” with law enforcement components having to compromise between following the Department’s directives and ensuring that any deployment is safe and effective.
Neither Barr nor several other former Justice Department officials have cooperated with the inspector general’s investigation. Barr did not respond to a request for comment.
Barr, the report said, “was directly involved in tactical decisions normally handled by the Department’s law enforcement agencies, such as decisions about the deployment of agents to specific locations.”
The report specifically referenced the deployment of Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officers outside the White House on June 1, 2020, when law enforcement cleared and detained protesters before Trump walked across the street to a nearby church. the bible for the cameras.
Barr’s chief of staff sent an email to the BOP to “immediately send personnel to the White House” even though BOP personnel had “received no instructions” about their mission or rules of engagement, the report said.
“A BOP supervisor reported that staff did not bring shields with them because they were unaware they would be helping with crowd control,” the inspector general’s report said. “Once they arrived at Lafayette Park, they learned their roles less than an hour before the cleanup operation began.”
The report said Barr “did not influence the timing of the cleanup,” but Kerry Kupec, who was Barr’s chief spokesman at the time and now works for Fox News, said in a statement to the media that, “We concluded that it gave an inaccurate impression that Barr personally ordered the operation and the DOJ- caused considerable public confusion about his role in this operation.”
The inspector general’s report confirmed that Kupec told reporters that Barr had told law enforcement to “get it done” immediately before clearing the area in front of the White House using force and less-lethal ammunition, but witnesses said Barr never made those notes.
Kupec also did not cooperate with the inspector general’s investigation and did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
In the report, Barr directed the Justice Department’s law enforcement agencies to “provide a specific number of personnel for pre-deployment and deployment.”
Finally, according to the report, 13 BOP personnel fired 72 pepper balls at members of the crowd during the June 1 cleanup operation. The lack of insignia on their uniforms “is due to the fact that the BOP has traditionally not placed personnel in public-facing roles outside of a prison setting,” the report said.
A former BOP chief told investigators that BOP workers had never dealt with civil protest like they encountered, but said they were used to managing crowds in a “different environment” and that the tactics and formations were not at all different. civilian environment compared to inside a prison.
BOP Director Michael Carvajal told investigators in a statement included in the report that BOP staff at the jail “know we use force, we know exactly what we can and can’t do when an inmate does something in the facility.” “It’s a little different here with a teenager and a cell phone.”
Barr told officials at a June 1 conference that they needed to deploy “maximum force” in Washington and “dominate the streets,” according to notes from the director of the US Marshals Service. The comments came after Barr contacted the White House about a fire in the annex of St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House, where Trump was to hold a Bible during a photo op that afternoon.
It was also mentioned in the report media coverage law enforcement officers not wearing name tags or even equipment identifying their agency. The report noted that photographs reviewed by investigators showed BOP officers “wearing green or black shirts equipped with tactical gear, including helmets, vests, shields and various ammunition,” and that one administrator told investigators the “hodge-podge” uniforms were the result. removal of employees from various prisons. One of the officials said that they were aware of this issue only from the news in the media.
Carvajal told reporters on June 4, 2020 that he could have done a better job by noting BOP officials and the inspector general said it was an “oversight,” and the inspector general’s report noted that the BOP soon worked with private vendors to develop patches. to identify officers.
“He also said that since this deployment, the BOP has developed standardized markers for crisis management teams that both identify the user as a member of the BOP and have a unique identification number for each BOP officer,” he said. “After BOP and other federal law enforcement officers responding to civil unrest in the summer of 2020 were unable to identify themselves or wear identification badges, Congress to require federal law enforcement officers and members of the National Guard to conspicuously display each individual’s identification Amended title 10. name or other unique identifier, as well as the name of the federal agency that employs the individual.”