Over 1,260 former Justice Department employees are urging the agency’s inspector general to investigate Attorney General William Barr’s role in law enforcement’s dispersal of protesters in Lafayette Square near the White House.
“We are deeply concerned about the department’s actions, and those of Attorney General William Barr himself, in response to the nationwide lawful gatherings to protest the systemic racism that has plagued this country throughout its history, recently exemplified by the brutal killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by sworn law enforcement officers acting under the color of law,” the workers said in a letter to Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
The letter came in a Wednesday posting on Medium.
“In particular, we are disturbed by Attorney General Barr’s possible role in ordering law enforcement personnel to suppress a peaceful domestic protest in Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020, for the purpose of enabling President [Donald] Trump to walk across the street from the White House and stage a photo op at St. John’s Church, a politically motivated event in which Attorney General Barr participated,” the workers added.
“We are asking you to immediately open and conduct an investigation of the full scope of the attorney general’s and the DOJ’s role in these events.”
Barr has defended the actions taken to quell “violent riots” at Lafayette Square.
“They were not peaceful protesters,” he said. “And that's one of the big lies that the media seems to be perpetuating at this point.”
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.