Readers will recall the mountains of vitriol and invective heaped on President Trump for ordering the June 1, vicious clearing of Lafayette Park in front of the White House, just so that he could go have a photo op holding a bible in front of St. John’s church. The media coverage of the incident helped catapult Black Lives Matter into national and international prominence, including the establishment of Black Lives Matter Plaza close to that location, emblazoned with 50-foot-high yellow letters painted on the street.
Except, it turns out it never happened. Trump had nothing to do with the clearing of Lafayette Park that day. A report released yesterday by the Interior Department’s inspector general concluded that the protesters were cleared by U.S. Park Police last June 1 so that a contractor could get started installing new fencing. Park Police officials had already planned to clear the area and “had begun implementing the operational plan several hours before they knew of a potential Presidential visit to the park,” Inspector General Mark Lee Greenblatt said in a statement accompanying the report.
