Trump tweets conspiracy theory about Buffalo protester police officers knocked to ground

Posted By: Staff
June 9, 2020 @ 12:29 pm
ABC Politics

Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks

Official White House Photo by Andrea HanksBy JORDYN PHELPS, ABC News

(WASHINGTON) — On the day of George Floyd’s funeral, President Donald Trump on Tuesday touted a new conspiracy theory in a high-profile case of alleged police misconduct caught on video involving an elderly protester pushed to the ground and seriously injured.

On Twitter Tuesday morning, Trump suggested that the 75-year-old man who remains hospitalized in serious condition after being shoved to the ground by two Buffalo, New York, police officers may be an “ANTIFA provocateur” and that the whole incident could be part of a “set up.”

Gugino’s lawyer has since called the president’s accusations “dark, dangerous, and untrue.”

“No one from law enforcement has even suggested anything otherwise so we are at a loss to understand why the President of the United States would make such dark dangerous, and untrue accusations against him,” Kelly Zarcone said in a statement of the president’s accusation against her client, who she said has been released from the ICU but remains hospitalized.

Tagging the conservative news outlet OANN (One America News Network), the president said “I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?”

The tweet comes on the heels of a roundtable meeting with law enforcement representatives on Monday in which Trump said the panel would discuss policing and “talk about ideas how we can do it better and how we can do it, if possible, in a much more gentle fashion.”

Two Buffalo police officers are now facing criminal charges in connection with the graphic caught-on-video shove of the man during a protest, prosecutors said over the weekend.

Officers Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe were charged with second-degree assault during their video arraignments on Saturday and were released on their own recognizance. They both entered not guilty pleas and are expected back in court on July 20.

All 57 members of the Buffalo Police Department’s Emergency Response Team resigned Friday from the unit in an apparent show of support for two officers who were suspended after the incident was filmed Thursday night.