A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the U.S. Defense Department to hand over records related to a physical altercation between an Arlington Cemetery official and a member of Donald Trump’s campaign staff during a wreath-laying ceremony in August.
The female official was shoved by the staffer as they tried to prevent the campaign from filming in a heavily restricted area of the cemetery, according to the Army. Neither party has been identified, and little else is known about the incident.
The court order was issued in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by American Oversight, a government transparency watchdog. The lawsuit was filed on Oct. 3 after the Army ignored a previous FOIA request, the nonprofit said.
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The group’s interim executive director, Chioma Chukwu, said in a statement that “the American people have a clear and compelling interest in knowing how the government responded to an alleged incident involving a major presidential candidate who has a history of politicizing the military,” particularly with the election just two weeks away.
“These records belong to the public,” Chukwu continued, “and we’re pleased the court agreed on the need to expedite our request. We look forward to receiving the incident report and making it available to the public.”
Senior Judge Paul Friedman ordered the U.S. Army to release the records by Friday.
Trump was visiting the national military cemetery on Aug. 26 to commemorate the third anniversary of a deadly suicide attack in Kabul that killed 13 American service members during the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal. Invited by some Gold Star families, the former president attended the ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before moving on to Section 60, where the physical episode took place.
His campaign has disputed that there was any “physical altercation” and has said it was prepared to release footage of the incident. It had yet to do so as of Tuesday.
“As the Army has said, they consider this matter closed,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said a few days later, after the Army released a statement explaining that a cemetery employee had been “abruptly pushed aside” by a campaign aide.
“Consistent with the decorum expected at A.N.C., this employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption,” the Army said at the time.
Top Democrats, including Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, have called for the Pentagon to release the incident report. Raskin said in an Aug. 31 letter to Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth that lawmakers wanted to know whether Trump’s staff “violated federal law or Cemetery rules and whether the Trump campaign informed the families of servicemembers buried at the Cemetery that their gravestones would be used in Mr. Trump’s political campaign ads.”
In a lengthy post on X at the time, Vice President Kamala Harris condemned Trump and his campaign for disrespecting “sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt.”
The Democratic presidential nominee added, “If there is one thing on which we as Americans can all agree, it is that our veterans, military families, and service members should be honored, never disparaged, and treated with nothing less than our highest respect and gratitude.”
