Army releases report on Trump campaign incident at Arlington National Cemetery

The Army has released the police report of an August altercation at Arlington National Cemetery involving two of former President Donald Trump’s campaign staffers and a cemetery worker.

The reportwhich has been almost entirely redacted, was made public on Friday following a lawsuit filed by government watchdog American Oversight.

The incident, first reported by NPRtook place in August, after Trump took part in a wreath-laying ceremony on the third anniversary of the deadly Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan that killed 13 American service members. Trump then came to visit Section 60where American victims from Iraq and Afghanistan are buried, at the invitation of some relatives and friends of the fallen soldiers.

NPR previously identified two staffers involved in the incident were deputy campaign manager Justin Caporale and Michel Picard, a member of Trump’s advance team, according to a source with knowledge of the incident.

Arlington National Cemetery rules communicated prior to the campaign visit prohibit photography or videography other than that of an official Arlington photographer.

When a cemetery worker tried to enforce the rules, she was verbally abused by the two Trump campaign aides, a source with knowledge of the incident said. Picard then pushed her aside, according to two Pentagon officials.

The report released Friday is dated August 29. It is heavily redacted, names have been removed and there is no mention of whether the Trump staffers were interviewed by police.

The report contains words that appear to describe what happened, and reads in part “with both (redacted) hands as we tried to pass.” It also notes that the employee has not filed any charges.

After NPR reported the altercation, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said they were “prepared to release footage” of the incident, and attacked the Arlington employee as someone “clearly suffering from a mental health episode.”

No video footage has been released related to the altercation, but Trump’s campaign later posted a video of Section 60 on social media, and Trump himself insisted the incident was a ‘made-up story’.