FACT BRIEF

Did William Barr block Derek Chauvin’s attempt to plead guilty to murdering George Floyd in 2020?

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

By Gus Fisher

Copy link

Copy featured image

YES

Ex-police officer Derek Chauvin was prepared to plea guilty to third-degree murder just days after choking George Floyd to death last May. But Chauvin’s plea deal was rejected by then-Attorney General William Barr, the New York Times confirmed with three law enforcement officials in February 2021.

Officials told the New York Times that Chauvin sought the deal to avoid federal civil rights charges, while Barr rejected the deal to avoid appearing too “lenient.”

These findings were independently corroborated by Justice Department officials to NBC News and law enforcement officials to AP News.

Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter on April 20, 2021. Chauvin pressed his knee to George Floyd’s neck for nine consecutive minutes, while Floyd repeatedly pleaded that he couldn’t breathe.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

New York Times Why William Barr rejected a plea deal in the George Floyd killing

NBC News Barr quashed plea deal by fired Officer Derek Chauvin in George Floyd death

AP News Officials: Chauvin was ready to plead to 3rd-degree murder

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR

Gigafact

Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

FACT BRIEF BY

Latest fact briefs

About fact briefs published on Gigafact

Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.