AG Barr Asked DOJ To Explore Charging Seattle Mayor: Report

SEATTLE, WA — Attorney General William Barr recently suggested sedition charges for "rioters and others who had committed violent crimes" at recent protests and asked the Justice Department to consider charging Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan over the former Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

The Times and the Wall Street Journal cited sources who described a recent conference call with Barr and U.S. attorneys around the country, including some who were unsettled by Barr's unusual suggestions. According to the Times, the Attorney General asked the Department of Justice's civil rights division to determine whether any federal charges could be brought against Durkan.

The mayor responded to the report via Twitter Wednesday evening, calling it "chilling and the latest abuse of power from the Trump administration."

The Wall Street Journal reports that federal charges have been brought against more than 200 people linked to protests across the nation. At least eight of those were in Seattle.

Back in June, President Donald Trump tweeted more than a dozen times about the Seattle protest zone, criticizing both Durkan and Gov. Jay Inslee. After the Seattle Police Department cleared the CHOP in early July, Barr released a statement praising then-chief Carmen Best for "restoring the rule of law in Seattle."

Later that month, Durkan joined five other mayors in signing a letter, addressed to the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, condemning the deployment of federal forces in Portland, Seattle and elsewhere — an action championed by Barr, and which prompted a congressional inquiry.

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