The U.S. Army released a heavily redacted police report on Donald Trump's controversial visit to Arlington National Cemetery in August when a campaign staffer shoved an employee during an altercation at the hallowed burial ground.
The 10-page report of the Aug. 26 incident was released Friday in response to a Freedom of Information request by American Oversight, a nonprofit government watchdog.
The cemetery employee was pushed by the staffer while trying to prevent Trump and others from photographing a ceremony the former president attended in Section 60 where casualties from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are buried.
Army national cemeteries prohibit political or campaign events.
A few sentences cover the altercation in the report's executive summary, but redacts any names or descriptions.
"While working at the Arlington National Cemetery, [redacted] with both of [redacted] hands while attempting to move past," the report states.
It noted that the employee refused medical attention, did not want to press charges and made a sworn statement, which is entirely blacked out in the report.
Trump was at the cemetery to mark the third anniversary of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, in which 13 service members were killed in a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
The former president, who said he was a guest of family members who lost loved ones in the bombing, laid a wreath commemorating the dead at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Afterward, Trump joined the families in Section 60 where he posed for "thumbs up" photos with them near the grave markings.
One mother of a Gold Star veteran whose son is buried in the section of Arlington National Cemetery where Trump held the photo op said the stunt on hallowed ground made her "sick," and a veterans group ad attacked the former president for using the graves as political props.
Chioma Chukwu, interim executive director of American Oversight, said the organization was happy to get the report so the public could see an investigation into the incident was conducted, the Associated Press reported.
The conduct of Trump and his staff "aligns with his history of politicizing the military and violating clear ethical boundaries, and it's time for the public to have all the facts."
