Protesters Gather Outside AG William Barr's McLean Home

MCLEAN, VA — Youth activists gathered outside the McLean home of U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday morning, protesting what they called corruption in his role as the federal government's top law enforcement officer.

The protest was organized by the McLean and Fairfax County chapters of Sunrise Movement, a youth activist group. At 6 a.m., they gathered outside Barr's home along with Sunrise Movement DC, Freedom Fighters DC, and Mothers Out Front Fairfax County.

Barr has served as U.S. attorney general under two presidents: George H.W. Bush from 1991 to 1993 and Donald Trump since 2019. Since being sworn in as attorney general on Feb. 14, 2019, opponents have portrayed Barr as a loyal defender of President Trump. Amid Black Lives Matter protests held across the U.S. in the aftermath of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis police custody, Barr has defended the federal law enforcement response to protests. In July testimony to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee as reported by Time Magazine, Barr said "violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests." The attorney general has also denied the link between federal officers clearing Black Lives Matter protesters from Lafayette Park in front of the White House and the president's photo op with a Bible in front of St. John's Episcopal Church.

Leah Siegel, lead organizer of the protest outside Barr's home, criticized how Barr has handled Black Lives Matter protests.

"William Barr has consistently proven he is Donald Trump’s Public Defender, not the Attorney General charged with enforcing the laws set in place to uphold the sanctity of democracy," said Siegel. "He has chosen to protect Donald Trump and his allies rather than to serve the American people and the Constitution. For that, we held this Wide Awake action to call attention to his corruption and his mishandling of the Department of Justice."

Sunrise Movement's mid-Atlantic regional coordinator, John Henry Williams, described the criminal justice system as broken and called for accountability from Barr.

"In this country justice is supposed to be blind, not sleeping, and as the highest law enforcement officer in the land, it is Attorney General William Barr's responsibility to wake the hell up and get to work," he said. "Deal with a broken criminal justice system, hold your powerful wealthy friends to account, stand against the fascism you are enabling in the president, and maybe for the first time in quite possibly ever, prove to me and my generation that America actually stands for liberty and justice for all."

The protest involved chants, speeches and songs sung outside the attorney general's home. At 7 a.m., the protesters started chanting, banging pots and pans, and calling on accountability from William Barr. Video shows Barr entering a car to leave his home around 7:30 a.m., evading protesters.