Civil rights groups sue Trump over assault on peaceful George Floyd protesters before president's Bible photo op

The ACLU accuses Donald Trump, Bill Barr and others of violating protesters' constitutional rights

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has launched a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the gassing of peaceful protesters at the White House this week.

Filed on behalf of Black Lives Matter DC and several individual protesters, the case is one of many the ACLU is mounting across the country in response to police violence against lawful, peaceful protesters and journalists – including many violent and unprovoked attacks caught on camera.

The incident on Monday afternoon saw riot police clear protesters out of Lafayette Square with tear gas and other weapons so that Donald Trump could walk across it for a brief photo op at St John’s Church, where he briefly held up a bible for the cameras before returning to the White House.

The ACLU’s complaint accuses Mr Trump, attorney general Bill Barr and other officials of violating protesters’ constitutional rights, specifically under the constitution’s first and fourth amendments, and of conspiracy to deny them those rights.

Black Lives Matter DC's April Goggans, the core organiser in the case, said in a statement issued via the ACLU that the events of Monday evening were “an affront to all our rights”.

“The death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police officers has reignited the rage, pain, and deep sadness our community has suffered for generations. We won’t be silenced by tear gas and rubber bullets. Now is our time to be heard.”

For its part, the Trump administration has denied using tear gas on the protesters, instead saying that police used “pepper balls” – projectiles filled with chemical irritants that have a very similar effect. The Centres for Disease Control includes these weapons under its broad definition of “tear gas”.

The White House has this week been heavily fortified with layers of additional fencing to keep protesters away. Hundreds of troops from the National Guard have been summoned to patrol the streets of Washington; also seen at the White House this week were men clad in riot gear but without any identifying uniforms or insignia.

When asked who they were, they gave various vague answers or declined to identify themselves. It has since transpired that at least some of them are from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

According to the ACLU’s Scott Michelman, Mr Trump’s treatment of the protesters was “shameless, unconstitutional, unprovoked, and frankly criminal”, and “shakes the foundation of our nation’s constitutional order”. As for Mr Barr, he said, “when the nation’s top law enforcement officer becomes complicit in the tactics of an autocrat, it chills protected speech for all of us”.