June 05, 2020 09:06 AM UTC

Rep. Neguse Demands Special Prosecutor To Investigate AG Barr

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

The Hill reports, the anger over an unprovoked attack on lawful protesters in Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Park across from the White House to permit President Donald Trump to hold a vacuous photo op in front of a nearby church continues to intensify, with dozens of members of Congress now demanding an investigation into the order to clear the park that Attorney General William Barr is taking responsibility for:

More than 80 House Democrats on Thursday called for the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate an incident in which law enforcement broke up a peaceful protest outside the White House.

In a letter to Attorney General William Barr led by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), the lawmakers expressed alarm over the use of tear gas, pepper balls and other devices to disperse the crowd in Lafayette Square. The suppression of the protest, which was reportedly directed by Barr, was followed by a photo opportunity at a nearby church for President Trump and other administration officials.

“We could not understand why such aggressive tactics were used … until we saw the President, yourself, and several senior White House officials walk through the site of the protest to film a cynical, political propaganda video that the White House later released through social media,” Cicilline wrote.

Rep. Joe Neguse, Colorado’s Democratic representative on the House Judiciary Committee opposite the GOP’s Rep. Ken Buck, is among those asking for a special counsel to investigate Monday’s attack:

Barr’s tenure as AG continues to be defined by his unwavering disregard for institutional norms and his weaponization of the Justice Department. [Pols emphasis]

Given how comfortably Barr has settled into his role as personal defense attorney for Donald Trump instead of the nation’s prosecutor-in-chief, the odds of him actually appointing a special counsel to investigate himself are of course not good. In the event he were to do so, Barr has the power to define the terms of the investigation into himself. And it should go without saying at this point that Barr has blown off the Democratic-controlled House more than he’s cooperated on any issue since his appointment in February of 2019.

But it’s a box Democrats have to check on the way to whatever accountability comes next, be it oversight or plebiscite. The unprovoked assault on protesters in Lafayette Park Monday has drawn comparisons to the July 1932 attack on the “Bonus Army” ordered by Herbert Hoover’s Attorney General William Mitchell. Although AG Mitchell was never punished for his role in that attack, the November 1932 landslide for Franklin Delano Roosevelt settled the question.

So, there’s that.