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Former US Justice Lawyers Call for Investigation of Barr

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - More than 1,250 former attorneys for the U.S. Justice
   Department called Wednesday for the agency's internal watchdog to
   investigate the role Attorney General William Barr played in the
   aggressive police clearance of largely peaceful protesters from a park
   near the White House last week.

   Police mounted on horses and officers on the ground firing pepper balls
   at the protesters cleared Lafayette Square minutes before President
   Donald Trump walked through the park June 1 for a photo-op at a nearby
   church where he held a Bible aloft.

   Barr, the top U.S. law enforcement official, has acknowledged telling
   police commanders stationed at the park that he wanted the fencing
   perimeter surrounding the park extended a block farther away from the
   White House after three days of occasionally violent protests in
   Washington May 29-31.

   But he has disputed accounts that clearing the park was directly
   related to Trump's short walk, which Barr joined, through the park to
   St. John's Episcopal Church.

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