Washington (CNN) – The Secretary of Justice of United StatesWilliam Barr said Monday that the Secret Service recommended moving President Donald Trump to the White House underground bunker during the protests in late May, contradicting the President’s earlier claim that his visit to the bunker was for an “inspection” .
Barr told Fox News that the June 1 move to expand the perimeter around the White House and Lafayette Square was a reaction “to three days of extremely violent protests right outside the White House: many injuries to police officers , arson. ”
READ: The Story of the White House’s Secret Presidential Bunker
“Things were so bad that the Secret Service recommended that the president go to the bunker,” Barr said, referring to the protests on May 29. “We cannot have that in our country. And so the decision was made. We had to move the perimeter one block. And that was what we were doing (June 1). ”
Last week, Trump attempted to explain the time he spent in the bunker during the clashes outside the residence on May 29 as an “inspection,” rather than a withdrawal for his own safety. He told Brian Kilmeade of Fox News Radio that he was only in the safe room “for a short time.”
“I went down during the day, and was there for a short period of time, and it was much more for an inspection, there was no problem during the day,” Trump said.
“They said it would be a good time to go down and take a look because maybe at some point they will need it,” added Trump. “I looked at him. It was during the day. It wasn’t a problem… There was never a problem. ”
READ: Trump was briefly taken to an underground shelter during protests in front of the White House
Trump also told Kilmeade that he had been to the bunker before, which he said were “two and a half occasions,” also to get an idea of the space and not to protect himself.
But last week, several people familiar with the matter described a different scenario to CNN, saying Trump was taken to the bunker for nearly an hour amid intense protests on the night of May 29.
A security source and another source familiar with the matter told CNN that First Lady Melania Trump and her son Barron were also taken to the bunker.
The second source told CNN that “if the status in the White House rises to RED and the president is transferred” to the Emergency Operations Center, “Melania Trump, Barron Trump and any other member of the first family would also be transferred “
CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Betsy Klein contributed to this report.
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