The US Army has released a heavily redacted version of a police report describing a reported altercation involving one of Donald Trump’s campaign staffers at Arlington National Cemetery in August.
Trump was invited to Arlingtonāthe resting place of more than 400,000 U.S. service members, veterans and their familiesāfor a wreath-laying ceremony on August 26 to honor the 13 service members who died while withdrawing from the Afghanistan War in 2021. The invitation was extended by several families of members deceased service.
There are reports that one of Trump’s staffers shoved cemetery officials who tried to prevent him from using photography while in Arlington. Federal law prohibits campaigning or election-related activities at the Army’s national military cemeteries.
Four sentences appearing in the executive summary of the report, released by court order on Friday, block keywords that appear to describe staff pushing cemetery employees. But he said the staff used both hands when trying to get past the cemetery employee.
Both names were redacted, and the sworn statement the cemetery official gave to the police was completely blacked out. The report added that the cemetery worker refused medical treatment and did not want to press charges.
Newsweek have contacted the Trump campaign and Arlington National Cemetery for comment via email.
Alex Brandon / AP
The lawsuit demanding the release of the police report was filed by the Washington-based government transparency group American Oversight, and a federal judge ordered it made public on Friday. The group posted the report on its website.
Chioma Chukwu, interim executive director of American Oversight, said the group is happy to release the report so the public can see “that there is still a federal law enforcement investigation into what happened in August at Arlington National Cemetery.”
Chukwu said the actions of Trump and his staff “are consistent with the history of military politics and violate clear ethical boundaries, and it’s time for the public to have all the facts.”
In a letter accompanying the report, Army senior counsel Paul DeAgostino said the redactions were made to protect privacy and personal information compiled for law enforcement purposes.
He said the records are part of an ongoing investigation and their release “could be expected to interfere with ongoing enforcement proceedings.”
The Army echoed DeAgostino’s comments, saying in a statement that it released the report to comply with court orders, adding that the police investigation “remains open and therefore we cannot provide more information at this time.”
The employee denied the charges, so it’s unclear what law enforcement action was taken.
In earlier comments, the Trump campaign said the team was given access to have photographers at the event, denied allegations that campaign staff had pushed the grave official, and denied that the grave official had been unfairly targeted.
Defense officials previously said the Trump campaign was warned before he arrived about not taking photos at Section 60, where service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.
During a campaign event in Michigan a few days after the incident, Trump said family members asked for photos with him at the gravesite.
“They asked me to have a picture, and they said I was campaigning,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
