DOJ report criticizes former AG Bill Barr for ‘chaotic’ response to 2020 George Floyd D.C. protests
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department’s top watchdog issued a report Wednesday criticizing former Attorney General Bill Barr’s management of the aggressive law enforcement response to protests in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2020 that turned violent in the wake the murder of George Floyd.
While DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz determined Barr was not personally involved in the controversial clearing of Lafayette Park to make way for former President Trump’s photo op in front of St. John’s Church on June 20, 2020, the 168-page report levels numerous criticisms regarding the “chaotic and disorganized” response by Barr and other DOJ leaders to the civil unrest that shook the nation’s capital.
“We were troubled by the Department leadership’s decision-making that required DOJ law enforcement agents and elite tactical units to perform missions for which they lacked the proper equipment and training,” the report says. “Multiple witnesses also told us that leadership did not timely and effectively communicate these deployment decisions to subordinates and non-DOJ agencies involved in the response.”
The report specifically singles out Barr’s efforts to show the DOJ could reign in the violence and vandalism surrounding the protests without military intervention, saying he “pressed DOJ law enforcement components to deploy personnel without sufficient attention to whether those personnel were properly trained or equipped for their mission.”
For example, the report confirms that Bureau of Prisons personnel deployed to respond to the unrest lacked jackets that had insignia identifying them as law enforcement personnel, which gained significant press attention and garnered harsh criticism from Democrats and civil rights groups. However, the review confirmed “that the lack of such markings was due to the fact that the BOP does not traditionally deploy personnel in a public-facing role outside the prison setting,” and not due to a deliberate effort to conceal the officers’ identities.
The review also scrutinizes the FBI’s deployment of personnel during the period between June 1 and June 3, following violent protests near the White House and a fire at St. John’s Church that led to former President Trump temporarily sheltering in the White House’s bunker on May 29.
According to the report, the deployment “lacked adequate planning, failed to provide sufficient guidance to personnel regarding their mission and legal authorities, and, by sending armed agents to respond to civil unrest for which they lacked the proper training or equipment, created safety and security risks for the agents and the public.”
“While we recognize that the civil unrest following George Floyd’s murder was a highly unusual situation that presented significant challenges the Department does not typically face, ensuring the safety of its personnel and the public should remain its utmost priority,” the report further said. “In the midst of a crisis, during pressure-filled moments when leadership must make hard decisions with little time to fully assess collateral and unintended consequences, the time-tested law enforcement practices and procedures that were collectively developed, after careful and calm deliberation, can and should be the first and most trusted resource for Department leadership.”
(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Monday decried a now-deleted post by Elon Musk on X as “irresponsible.”
In the Sunday night post — which he made after the second apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump — Musk, who owns the platform, responded to a user who asked, “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?”
In his post, Musk wrote, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.”
Following intense backlash, Musk deleted the post and walked it back as a joke early Monday.
“Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X,” Musk wrote.
“Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text,” he added shortly after.
Responding to the post on Monday, the White House condemned Musk for having “joked about” or even “encouraged” violence.
“As President Biden and Vice President Harris said after yesterday’s disturbing news, ‘there is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country,’ and ‘we all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence,’ the statement read.
“Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about. This rhetoric is irresponsible,” the White House added.
Musk has endorsed Trump, and Trump has said he would tap Musk to lead a government efficiency commission if elected.
(NEW YORK) — Former Trump administration official Kellyanne Conway has registered as a foreign agent representing Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk’s foundation, new foreign lobbying disclosure reports show.
In 2015, the Ukrainian steel magnate donated $150,000 to former President Donald Trump’s charitable organization to book the then-presidential candidate to speak at a conference in Kyiv.
The donation was later reportedly investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team in connection with their probe into Trump’s and his campaign’s alleged role in Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, according to The New York Times. Mueller’s final report did not specifically address this donation.
Conway is representing the U.K. office of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, which the disclosure filings describe as a “registered, private, nonpartisan, philanthropic company limited by guarantee in the United Kingdom primarily focused on advancing artistic, scientific, charitable, benevolent, and philanthropic purposes in Ukraine or related to Ukraine.”
According to the disclosure, Conway has been hired to influence American “political leaders,” “lawmakers, experts and opinion makers” on a variety of issues related to Ukraine, including “making best efforts to convince” them to “attend the annual Yalta European Strategy meeting in Kiev on September 13 – 14,” the disclosure filing states.
Yalta European Strategy’s annual gathering, also known as YES, is the same conference that Trump virtually attended in 2015 allegedly in exchange for Pinchuk’s donation.
Conway’s role as an agent for Pinchuk’s foundation also includes engaging U.S. political leaders and experts to “explain the importance of Ukraine to the rules-based order and the protection of democratic principles,” and contributing to “raising awareness among US decision makers of Ukrainians’ fight for freedom and the Russian illegal war of aggression,” according to the disclosure filing.
She is also tasked with assisting with organizing meetings between U.S. political leaders and Ukrainian soldiers and veterans, and to keep Pinchuk informed of the process and achievements, per the disclosure filing.
Conway is set to be paid $50,000 a month for her services throughout the contract, which runs from July 25 through Nov. 14, 2024, with an option to extend it, according to their service agreement.
ABC News has reached out to Conway.
The $150,000 donation to Trump’s foundation was one of many foreign payments Trump and his associates had received in the years leading up to the 2016 election that had been scrutinized by the special counsel’s team, according to the New York Times.
In 2018, the Trump Organization turned over documents related to the $150,000 donation from Pinchuk, after investigators subpoenaed the Trump family business for an array of records about business with foreign nationals.
In 2019, Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen testified before the House Oversight Committee that the $150,000 donation was in lieu of Trump’s speaking engagement at the conference.
Trump ended up making a 20-minute virtual appearance at the YES gathering in Kyiv in September 2015, where the then-presidential candidate praised Pinchuk, saying, “Victor is a very, very special man. A special entrepreneur.”
During his virtual remarks at the 2015 YES gathering, Trump also attacked then-President Barack Obama for not doing enough to support Ukraine, saying, “Part of the problem we have with the Ukraine is that [Vladimir] Putin does not respect our president whatsoever. Putin does not respect our president.”
Pinchuk’s contribution to Trump’s charity group was disclosed in 2016 as a part of the charity group’s annual tax record. The Victor Pinchuk Foundation offices told ABC News at the time that the contribution was made to bolster its efforts to persuade Western governments to help protect the territorial integrity of Ukraine in the face of Russian incursions.
“The sole reason the Victor Pinchuk Foundation has reached out to President-elect Trump — as well as other world leaders — has been to promote strengthened and enduring ties between Ukraine and the West,” a spokeswoman for the Pinchuk foundation said in an emailed response to questions in November 2016.
“Mr Pinchuk had met Mr Trump some years ago in New York, this is how the invitation for Mr Trump to speak at the YES meeting came about,” the spokeswoman said at the time.
Pinchuk has also been a prolific donor to the Clinton Foundation, giving tens of millions of dollars to the group over the years, as well as reportedly lending his private plane to the Clintons.
(CHICAGO) — As the Democratic National Convention made history with Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the first Black and South Asian woman to accept the Democratic nomination for president, the most viral moments in a week of “firsts” were captured by social media content creators who received first-of-its-kind credentialed access to the convention.
The presidential race closes in with less than three months until the election, and the key to the Oval Office might just come down to winning over the youngest generation of voters, whose coming of age has changed the landscape of the election.
One-third of adults under the age of 30 regularly scroll social media apps, like TikTok, for news, up 255% since 2020, according to Pew Research.
The Center for Information and Research on Civic Engagement and Learning revealed that young voters are consuming and producing political news more than ever, with 70% of young people revealing they got information about the 2020 election on social media.
It’s part of why both the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns are getting creative and investing in their social media strategy to influence Gen Z voters.
Both parties invited hundreds of creators to their prospective conventions to help draw eyeballs to their platforms and presidential candidates.
Roughly 70 content creators were invited to participate in the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last month, according to the RNC officials.
The DNC said around 200 social media influencers were credentialed for the convention, giving them exclusive access to invite-only parties and events as well as opportunities to meet and interview delegates.
They were also given access to an exclusive “creator’s lounge” that was separate from traditional media spaces in the United Center arena. Influencers took turns recording content from a designated seating area on the arena floor close to the stage.
“There are influencers that are way more powerful than the TV networks, way more powerful than the New York Times or the Washington Post, and way more important if you’re trying to reach actual voters,” said ABC News Washington Bureau and Political Director Rick Klein in an interview with “Nightline.”
“If you can get the youth vote to engage just a little bit more, the thinking is, well, that can just change the election,” Klein said.
The battle for the youth vote
From former President Donald Trump’s return to X in an interview with Elon Musk to the vice president’s viral memes at the kickoff of her presidential campaign, the presidential hopefuls are battling to engage young voters.
So far, Harris seems to have the edge — the vice president leads Trump by 20 points among 18-39-year-olds, according to a recent ABC News/ Washington Post Ipsos poll.
In terms of followers, Trump beats Harris with his 10.5 million followers compared to her 4.6 million on TikTok.
“I constantly joke with President Trump when we’re backstage at events that he was the ultimate influencer. He was the original kind of the OG influencer,” Brilyn Hollyhand, an 18-year-old social media influencer, told “Nightline.”
Hollyhand was among the content creators credentialed for the Republican National Convention. The high school senior was the convention’s youth advisory chair, and he said it was his idea to give young social creators credentialed access to the RNC.
“My message to the RNC after the 2022 Midterms was that the Republican Party is an endangered species at risk of extinction. I went into this meeting thinking that it would be a really hard sell. And they immediately went for it,” Hollyhand said.
Hollyhand told ABC News that he believes anecdotally that it was a success.
“I came back to school the next week, half of my peers who didn’t even know a convention was going on, now, because their favorite fitness influencer posted a video or their favorite video game streamer posted a TikTok from the event … they found out a convention was going on and they enjoyed it,” Hollyhand added.
While young voters tend to sway more Democratic, Klein told “Nightline,” that the bigger variable is voter turn-out.
“The biggest question is not really how they vote, but how many of them vote. And that’s where the enthusiasm that can be engendered by authentic communication through influencers can make a difference,” Klein said.
In Chicago this week, Malynda Hale, an actress and social media influencer with more than 90,000 followers, was among the 200 influencers at the DNC.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Hale told ABC News’ multiplatform reporter Christiane Cordero on “GMA3.” “When I found out it was going to be Kamala Harris, I was like, this is going to be historical.”
Hale posted daily updates and interviews with delegates as she participated in DNC convention events.
“I gained a couple hundred, just like just yesterday just from doing this stuff. And since the hashtag #democraticconvention, I think everyone’s kind of watching it right now, ” Hale said.
Many credential influencers say they aren’t being paid by the Democratic National Convention or the campaign, but some of their trips are funded by agencies and nonprofits that align with their content.
Elizabeth Booker Houston, a social justice influencer with more than half a million followers, says being funded independently allows her to stay authentic on her platform.
“I participated in a protest for Palestine at Michigan Avenue on Sunday when I was here. I don’t at all feel like I’m silenced in speaking about those issues just because I’m here at the DNC,” Houston said.
Some influencers who attend the DNC are using their platforms to promote presidential candidates that align with their platform.
Deja Foxx, an abortion rights activist, was one of the first influencers to take the stage at the DNC convention.
“We need Kamala Harris. She’ll deliver a future where we can decide if and when to start a family,” Deja said on the convention stage on August 19.
The Arizona native went viral in 2017 for confronting Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., over his support of defunding reproductive health and family planning programs.
“Why is it your right to take away my right to choose Planned Parenthood?” Foxx asked Flake. The moment was shared on Facebook by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona and millions of people liked shared the video in solidarity.
Foxx said she started creating reproductive rights content on her social media accounts. In 2019, while she was a student at Columbia University, she got a call from the Harris campaign during the now-vice president’s first presidential run.
“Within two weeks, I was packing up that dorm room and starting a job as an influencer and surrogate strategist out of headquarters, a job that, mind you, did not exist before I got there,” Foxx told ABC News.
Fast forward to this year, the Harris campaign invited Foxx to speak at the DNC as a credentialed creator. Foxx said she has not been affiliated with the campaign directly since her role in 2019. She notes she was not paid directly by a PAC or the Harris campaign for her attendance at the DNC; however, footage that was shot at the convention event will be used in paid partnership and will be labeled accordingly.
“To be here today, to be a small part of history, is a dream realized,” Foxx said, adding that she is mindful that her peers may be using her content to shape their political views.
“They are building a political identity in their teens and early 20s, that is going to follow them, follow our generation for a lifetime. I think it’s a really smart investment to think about how we are helping them build that perspective, that opinion early and meeting them on the platforms where they already are,” Foxx said.
ABC News’ Marjorie McAfee, Zoe Chevalier and Elizabeth Pekin contributed to this report.