Ex-Justice Department staff call for Barr probe over Trump 'photo op'

More than 1,250 former US Department of Justice workers called for an investigation Wednesday into Attorney General William Barr's involvement in using force to clear a large crowd of peaceful protesters from Washington's Lafayette Square "for the purpose of enabling President Trump to walk across the street from the White House and stage a photo op at St. John's Church".

The letter, co-signed by 1,264 DOJ alumni, asks Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz to "immediately open and conduct an investigation of the full scope of the Attorney General's and the DOJ's role" in the June 1 incident.

"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," the letter said.

"If the Attorney General or any other DOJ employee has directly participated in actions that have deprived Americans of their constitutional rights or that physically injured Americans lawfully exercising their rights, that would be misconduct of the utmost seriousness, the details of which must be shared with the American people," the letter went on to say.

The signatories are mostly former career prosecutors, supervisors and trial lawyers who worked in both Republican and Democratic administrations.

On June 1, federal law enforcement officers used rubber bullets, chemical irritants, stun grenades and smoke canisters against peaceful demonstrators protesting police brutality and racism to force them out of Lafayette Square, the park across the street from the White House, an action that sparked outrage across the country.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at a June 3 press briefing that "AG Barr had determined that we needed to expand the perimeter by one block on each side" Monday morning.

In a June 5 interview with The Associated Press, Barr said he did not give the officers the orders to proceed because they were already in the process of doing so when he showed up.

Barr said that both he and the US Park Police agreed on the need to expand the White House security perimeter. Under the plan, the protesters would be moved away from Lafayette Park, and federal law enforcement officials and members of the National Guard would maintain the perimeter line.

"I'm not involved in giving tactical commands like that," Barr told the AP. "I was frustrated and I was also worried that as the crowd grew, it was going to be harder and harder to do. So my attitude was get it done, but I didn't say, 'Go do it.'"

Barr also maintained that there was no coordination between the tactical plan to expand the perimeter and the president's afternoon visit to the church.

"While the full scope of the Attorney General's role is not yet clear, he has admitted that he was present in front of the White House before law enforcement personnel took action to disperse the crowd. (DOJ) and White House personnel initially said that the Attorney General gave an order to law enforcement personnel to 'get going' or 'get it done,'" the DOJ alumni letter read.

"Based on what we now know, these actions violated both the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which protects freedom of speech and the press, and the right to assemble; and the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable seizures, to include objectively unreasonable uses of force by law enforcement officers," it continued.

Yi Zong in Washington contributed to this story