Many of the stormtroopers that cleared Lafayette park the other evening to make a path for Trump to do his photo op in front of St. John’s Church were wearing tactical gear, but no badges, ID plates or insignia.  The press immediately noticed and began investigating.  The Washington Post got to the bottom of it this week – they’re from the federal Bureau of Prisons, called up personally by Bill Barr.  The BOP confirmed this shocking news and lied that they weren’t wearing BOP insignia or identification because they were being used “in a broader mission.”  NO, they wore no insignia to make it harder to figure out who to hold accountable for police violence.

Adding to his mountain of lies, Bill Barr actually denied ordering the BOP officers and others to clear Lafayette Park to give Trump a clear lane to carry out his stunt for the photo op. He said that park police were already clearing the park when he arrived. That assertion doesn’t pass the straight faced test, and that wasn’t the question.  The question is, did he give the order to clear the park so Trump could safely strut over to the church?  Of course he did, and while they were at it, cordoned off the park with heavy security fencing to permanently distance the White House from Americans Trump is hiding from.  And he did all that with his employees from his prisons in unmarked uniforms to conceal their identities.  This is the exact same tactic that Putin used when he deployed “little green men” into Ukraine in 2014 in his attempt to take over that country and Crimea.  The Russian government later admitted that those soldiers were indeed Russian military.

Welcome to the new normal of Trump’s America.