#Mike Pompeo vows probe into abuse of foreign journalists by US authorities

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that the State Department will investigate complaints about foreign journalists being abused by US authorities during protests against the killing of George Floyd by Minnesota police.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison requested an investigation last week after US Park Police officers grabbed a camera from, punched and whacked with a baton two journalists for Australia’s Channel 7 as they cleared an intersection near the White House of demonstrators.

“I know there have been concerns from some countries of their reporters having been treated inappropriately here — we’ve seen some of those allegations come in to the State Department. You should know, those countries should know we will handle them in a completely appropriate way,” Pompeo told reporters.

“We will do our best to investigate them to the extent the State Department is capable of doing that,” he continued. “And we will address them in a way that is appropriate to try to address any concerns those nations may have about their journalists, who we, too, do our level best to protect.”

Pompeo defended the overall US response to protests and reprimanded a reporter for “assuming there is a moral equivalency” between repression overseas and US authorities clashing with protesters and journalists outside the White House.

The top diplomat also pushed back on a reporter who asked specifically about Pompeo’s denunciations of China for repressing protesters in Hong Kong, when police cracked down on protesters “down the street.”

“I actually think our diplomats have this incredible opportunity to tell this important story about how America confronts challenges inside its own country,” he said.

“The challenges like the ones we are confronting today here in the United States today will be managed head on, there will be a political process that’s engaged in, there will be wide-open debate.”

Park Police officers set upon the Australian TV crew during a clear-out operation minutes before President Trump visited the nearby fire-damaged St John’s Episcopal Church. Park Police said they cleared the intersection after they were attacked while trying to install a new security fence, rather than because of Trump’s visit.

The White House said Attorney General William Barr ordered the security perimeter to be expanded earlier in the day, “long before the church discussion was ever in consideration.”

But Barr later told Fox News the Park police made the call to clear the square.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on other countries that complained about mistreatment of reporters in the US.