Now Barr is trying to pretend he wasn’t actually involved in that whole thing. He was there and all, but he wasn’t, like, saying go spray that person and that one and that one. He did ask who will rid him of this turbulent crowd, but he didn’t say how. He was just musing aloud, really. Expressing the wistful hopes and dreams of a loyal public servant.

Attorney General William P. Barr sought to dissociate himself Friday from police’s move earlier this week to push back a crowd of largely peaceful demonstrators using horses and gas, claiming that he did not give the “tactical” order for law enforcement on the scene to move in.

He’s a civilian, ok? He doesn’t give the tactical orders. None of it was his fault!

“I’m not involved in giving tactical commands like that,” Barr told the Associated Press. “I was frustrated and I was also worried that as the crowd grew, it was going to be harder and harder to do. So my attitude was get it done, but I didn’t say, ‘Go do it.’ ”

Mmmmm. His attitude was – what does that mean? He had a look on his face that meant “get it done”? Or he actually said “get it done” but did not say “go do it”? His body posture said “get it done” but his clothes did not say “go do it”?

At his own news conference Thursday, Barr said he had decided to extend the perimeter early Monday morning, and later, around 2 p.m., met with law enforcement agencies to lay out a plan for doing so. He said that officials could not get units in place soon enough to execute the plan before demonstrators arrived, but he did not address what happened in the minutes before police made their move.

And none of that in any way suggests “Go do it.” Obviously. It’s all just a general expression of mood, with no trace of orders or instructions or commands.

A video of the incident shows Barr conferring with officials on the ground, and about 24 minutes later, police making an aggressive move on the crowd. The Associated Press reported that Barr “said it was a Park Police tactical commander — an official he never spoke to — who gave the order for the law enforcement agencies to move in and clear the protesters.

And the two were completely unconnected! Barr was talking to the officials about golf, and not at all about violently pushing protesters out of Lafayette Park.

“They told me they were about to make the announcement and I think they stretched the announcements over 20 minutes. During the time I was there, I would periodically hear announcements,” Barr told the Associated Press. “They had the Park Police mounted unit ready, so it was just a matter of execution. So, I didn’t just say to them, ‘Go.’ ”

Oh thank god. Thank god thank god thank god. Barr didn’t just say to them, “Go.” That changes everything.

Kerri Kupec, a Justice Department spokeswoman, claimed there was “no contradiction” between Barr’s and other officials’ comments — though her statement did not address McEnany and the Justice Department official saying specifically that Barr had told those on scene to take action.

“Earlier in the day, the Attorney General had approved and adopted a plan to move the perimeter in response to the violence that had occurred over the weekend. Subsequently, he checked in with federal law enforcement officials on the ground in Lafayette Square to see how it was proceeding,” Kupec said.

So, in other words, he said to remove the protesters in the morning, but he didn’t say it again in the afternoon. He is OFF THE HOOK.