Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin requested that Army Secretary Christine Wormuth provide a “full account” of former President Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery after reports of an altercation between his staff and cemetery officials.
In a letter on Friday, Mr. Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, requested details, including whether Mr. Trump’s staff “violated federal law or cemetery rules and whether the Trump campaign informed the families of service members buried at the cemetery that their gravestones would be used in Mr. Trump’s political campaign ads.”
On Monday, a verbal and physical altercation reportedly took place between members of Mr. Trump’s staff and cemetery officials when his team tried to take photos in Section 60 of the grounds, an act allegedly permitted only to cemetery staff.
The Virginia cemetery confirmed in a statement that a dispute occurred and filed a report, noting that federal law prevents political or campaign events from happening in the cemetery, including “photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign.”
The Trump campaign denied the incident took place and threatened to “release footage if such defamatory claims are made.”
Mr. Raskin included an apology from Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who attended the ceremony remembering the 13 service members killed in Afghanistan in 2021, in his letter.
“Gov. Cox has since apologized for making political and campaign use of a visit to Arlington National Cemetery — but neither Mr. Trump nor his campaign [has] joined Gov. Cox in apologizing for these blatant violations,” the lawmaker wrote.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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