CNN Newsroom with Ana Cabrera
June 9, 2021
1:38 p.m. Eastern
ANA CABRERA: We have this breaking news. A brand new government report is just out on this controversial moment involving former President Trump last June where police teargassed a crowd of protesters in Lafayette Square before Trump walked to this nearby church for a photo op with a Bible. CNN law enforcement correspondent Whitney Wild joins us now with what this report says. Whitney, what can you tell us?
WHITNEY WILD: Well,. Ana, this report, dropping just a few minutes ago, says that U.S. Park Police did have the authority to clear Lafayette Park when they did. There was a big question about whether or not they should have waited until the D.C. curfew went into effect -- that was at 7:00 because we know Park Police began clearing that area around Lafayette Park around 6:00. So here's what the report says. They did have the authority to clear it when they did. They did not need to wait for the curfew. There were also questions about chemical irritants that were deployed -- was it teargas? Was it not teargas?
What we've learned from this report, Ana, is that Park Police did not deploy teargas. Instead, they did deploy this white chemical irritant, this white -- I'm sorry, a white smoke non-irritant white smoke. That's an important distinction because they felt like their operational plan did not specify that they should be using teargas.
So Park Police decided early on they were not going to use teargas -- they did not. The report says that it was the Metropolitan Police Department that later on in another location used teargas. So the white sort of smoke that you see deployed by Park Police and its law enforcement partners, that is a nonirritant white smoke. So an important distinction there.
This was also not cleared for the President's visit to this church. It was actually sort of a -- I wouldn't use the term "happenstance" -- but it's not clear why -- well, let me back up -- let me explain the whole process here because it was a -- it was sort of a daylong thing that led up to this confrontation. Park Police earlier on in the day had decided that they were going to clear the area outside Lafayette park because, by June 1st, after days of civil unrest in D.C., they needed a contractor to come in and put up a fence around the White House.
It was at the contractor's request that this happen under two conditions -- one, during daylight hours; and two, with a police presence. So Park Police had decided to create this operational plan -- they always planned to clear the area for the purpose of getting the fence up safely -- not for the purpose of allowing the President to go to the church. That decision was made -- the report doesn't opine on why the decision was made, but the timing here -- although it looks, you know, at first blush, perhaps looked like that was the reason. The report says that explicitly was not the reason, Ana.
. Craig Millward
