WASHINGTON -- Several hundred active-duty troops brought in to help if needed with the civil unrest in the nation's capitol were leaving Washington, D.C., on Thursday, just a day after their original departure was abruptly delayed.
The soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division have been kept at military bases outside the city, and are now returning to Fort Bragg, N.C., according to a defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss impending troop movements. The official said Defense Secretary Mark Esper has approved the move.
On Wednesday, defense officials approved an order to send the soldiers home, but just a few hours later Esper reversed the decision, keeping them outside the city for another day amid growing tensions with the White House over the military response to the protests.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told The Associated Press that he was told about the reversal after Esper attended a meeting at the White House on Wednesday, and after other internal Pentagon discussions. McCarthy said he believed the change was based on ensuring there is enough military support in the region to respond to any protest problems if needed.
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Esper said he opposed using military troops for law enforcement, referring to the president's threat to use the Insurrection Act. Esper said the 1807 law should be invoked "only in the most urgent and dire of situations." He added, "We are not in one of those situations now."
The soldiers are the first active-duty to leave. The remainder of the active-duty troops are expected to get pulled home in the coming days if conditions allow. The active-duty troops were available, but were not used in response to the protests.
About 1,300 active-duty troops were brought in to the capital region early this week as protests in the city turned violent. The protests came in the aftermath of the death in Minnesota of a black man, George Floyd, who died after a white police officer pressed his knee to Floyd's neck for several minutes.
The active-duty unit that will be last to remain on alert is the Army's 3rd Infantry Regiment, which is normally most visible as the soldiers who stand at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The troops, known as the Old Guard, are based close to D.C. at Fort Myer, Va., and have been on 30-minute alert status. They would continue to be prepared to respond to any emergency in the region within a half-hour for as long as needed.
ON THE FENCE
On Thursday, retired four-star Gen. John Allen joined the chorus of former military leaders critical of the president. And Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Esper's remarks were "overdue" and she didn't know if she would support President Donald Trump in November.
Former Secretary James Mattis, a retired Marine general, lambasted both Trump and Esper in an essay in The Atlantic for their consideration of using the active-duty military in law enforcement -- and for the use of the National Guard in clearing out a largely peaceful protest near the White House on Monday evening.
"We must reject any thinking of our cities as a 'battlespace' that our uniformed military is called upon to 'dominate,'" Mattis wrote, referencing quotes by Esper and Trump respectively. "Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict -- a false conflict -- between the military and civilian society. "
Mattis, in his essay Wednesday, called the scene an "abuse of executive authority." The retired general quit the Trump administration in December 2018.
"I have watched this week's unfolding events, angry and appalled," Mattis wrote.
Trump responded on Twitter Wednesday evening by calling Mattis "the world's most overrated General."
"I didn't like his 'leadership' style or much else about him, and many others agree," Trump tweeted. "Glad he is gone!"
Mattis said of the protesters that Americans should not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers.
Yet another former military leader, retired Marine Corps four-star general Allen, said that events on Monday, the day Trump walked to the church, "may well signal the beginning of the end of the American experiment."
Allen, president of the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution, contrasted the routing of the protesters in Lafayette Park with remarks by Floyd's brother, Terrence Floyd, who denounced looting that he said tarnishes his brother's memory.
MIXED FEELINGS
Lawmakers' opinions about Mattis were mixed.
Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., said in a statement, "I have the utmost respect for General Mattis. Right now, I believe it is in our nation's best interest for every leader to bring down the temperature so that we can begin to move forward with reforms that can improve the relationship between law enforcement and minority communities."
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Thursday, "When I saw General Mattis' comments yesterday, I felt like perhaps we're getting to the point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally, and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up."
Murkowski expressed relief that she was finally saying what she grappled with for several years. "I am struggling with it. I have struggled with it for a long time," she said on whether she could vote for Trump in November.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, initially avoided addressing the matter, but after Murkowski spoke out, he joined in criticizing Trump's recent behavior by calling Mattis's statement "stunning and powerful"
"I think the world of him. If I ever had to choose somebody to be in a foxhole with - it would be with a General Mattis," the 2012 Republican presidential nominee told reporters.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., accused Mattis of "buying into a narrative" from the news media that everything wrong with the country is Trump's fault.
"To General Mattis, I think you're missing something here, my friend. You're missing the fact that the liberal media has taken every event in the last three and a half years and laid it at the president's feet. I'm not saying he's blameless, but I am saying that you're buying into a narrative that I think is quite frankly unfair," Graham told Fox News.
"Destruction of property will not bring about meaningful change," Boozman continued in his statement, commenting on the violent protests. "It will only hinder the momentum that has clearly been built through the efforts of thousands of protesters."
He expressed support for use of the National Guard.
"Using the National Guard at the discretion of our governors to supplement local law enforcement in protecting individuals and property has proven to be an effective tool in decreasing violence. This support has assisted state and local law enforcement in maintaining public safety in recent protests."
Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president was still willing to deploy federal troops despite Esper's comments: "If needed, he will use it," she told reporters.
SUIT FOR POTUS
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union and Black Lives Matter on Thursday accused Trump and his administration of authorizing an "unprovoked and frankly criminal attack" on demonstrators near the White House.
In a federal lawsuit, the groups asserted that U.S. and military police officers' use of horses, batons, shields and riot control agents -- including pepper spray, smoke canisters and rubber or plastic projectiles -- violated largely peaceful protesters' constitutional rights of free speech and assembly 30 minutes before a citywide curfew took effect Monday.
The suit -- which also names Attorney General William Barr as a defendant -- was brought by the ACLU of the District of Columbia, the Washington Lawyers' Committee, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. All plaintiffs said they were gathered peacefully to protest the videotaped police custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and others.
After the crowd was dispersed, Trump, followed by an entourage of his most senior aides -- including Barr -- along with Secret Service agents and reporters, walked over to St. John's Church, the landmark pale-yellow building where every president, including Trump, has prayed, that had been damaged Sunday night in a protest fire. Barr said Trump, as the nation's chief executive, had every right to do so and claimed it wasn't political.
"I don't necessarily view that as a political act. I think it was entirely appropriate for him to do," Barr said.
ACLU officials called the lawsuit the first of many it intends to file in response to violence by police against protesters and journalists in demonstrations that have flared up in all 50 states, saying the attorney general has become complicit in attacks on First Amendment rights.
A White House spokesman referred questions to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump and his allies have given conflicting explanations for how, why, and who ordered protesters to be cleared from the area around Lafayette Square in front of the White House.
The White House first said the demonstrators were targeted in an effort to help enforce Washington's 7 p.m. curfew, though District police said it did not request such assistance. The Park Police, meanwhile, said its officers moved against the crowd only after protesters began hurling projectiles.
Other officials said the crowd was cleared as part of an existing plan to extend the perimeter around Lafayette Square. When Barr visited the square late Monday afternoon and saw the perimeter had not yet been extended, he then ordered it clear, they said.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the group Black Lives Matter D.C. and individual protesters who were present. It is filed by the ACLU of DC, Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the law firm of Arnold & Porter.
Members of Congress have raised concerns about a number of federal law enforcement officials in Washington who have refused to identify which agency they work for and stand, armed, without any visible identification or badges. Some lawmakers have vowed to introduce legislation to require federal agents to identify themselves at protests.
"We are concerned about the increased militarization and lack of clarity that may increase chaos," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in a letter to Trump on Thursday.
Some of the officers appeared to be assigned to Bureau of Prisons special response teams, which were dispatched to Washington and Miami. Some of those officers have said they were told to say only that they work for the federal government or the Department of Justice.
But Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal said that was untrue and no such directive had been given.
"I probably should have done a better job of marking them nationally as the agency, the point is well taken, but I can assure you that no one was specifically told, to my knowledge, not to identify themselves," he said.
Information for this article was contributed by Lolita C. Baldor, Zeke Miller, Robert Burns, Michael Balsamo, Sarah Blake Morgan and Kevin Freking of The Associated Press; by Paul Kane, John Wagner, Josh Dawsey, Dan Lamothe, David Weigel and Spencer S. Hsu of The Washington Post; and by Frank E. Lockwood of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 06/05/2020