Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) tore into Attorney General Bill Barr on Tuesday, accusing him of blatantly lying to Congress about his role in directing federal agents to sweep peaceful protestors out of Lafayette Park just prior to President Donald Trump’s infamous photo op.

Dean, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, reviewed her sharp questions of Barr during an appearance on MSNBC’s The ReidOut. During his testimony, which at one point intensely focused on the violent, highly aggressive crackdown on protestors, Barr was questioned about the use of chemicals to clear the protestors, when the U.S. Park Police have confirmed that it used chemical agents, specifically pepper balls, to disperse the crowd.

“You know, you had a member of the National Guard who testified that incendiary chemicals were used on including an Episcopal priest who was part of those who were gassed and peppersprayed there,” host Joy Reid pointed out, about an Army officer’s testimony to the House committee on Tuesday. “Do you believe that William Barr lied to you under oath about what happened in Lafayette Park?”

“He not only lied. He doubled back. He did a backflip,” Dean said, calling out Barr. “I quoted him where he said it was not chemical, that the pepper balls used against peaceful protesters. This was a peaceful protest. If there was any kind of rioting, of course, this is not the way you would deal with rioting. This was peaceful protests. That’s what everybody has said. What the attorney general said was ‘Yes, it was not chemical. No, it was chemical, I didn’t meant that.’ He did a double backflip. He used pepper ball agents against peaceful protesters.”

Dean went on to condemn the dangers of shooting pepper balls in dispersing the protestors because of the injuries they can inflict when fired out of paintball guns at close range.

“I showed him was that the beauty of pepper balls is not only the chemical irritant but the blunt force trauma,” Dean added. “That’s what he directed when he stood in that square at 6:10 and said ‘Get it done.’ And there’s no coincidence between the president finishing a ‘law and order’ statement in the Rose Garden and walking across. What I compare him to, the attorney general worked as an advance man on the campaign. Can you imagine the Secret Service would have thought ‘There’s some disturbance in Lafayette Square? The last thing we want is for the president to walk out the front door of the White House and across the square.’ This is an advance man for a political campaign for a photo op with, as I said, a borrowed Bible.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/3g9kyln