There’s a bit of missing context here where the media went out of their way to deliberately photograph Ashcroft and other DOJ speakers with the nude sculpture in the background. From BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1788845.stm
> Photographers have gone to great lengths in the past to capture the scantily-clad female statue in the background as the Justice Department's top brass addressed the world's press.
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> Hired drapes have previously hung in front of both statues for formal events, such as President George W Bush's visit to name the building after assassinated former attorney-general, Robert Kennedy.
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> The drapes are reported to have been hanging since Monday, drawing to a close the sport of photographers who infamously sprawled on the floor to snap the former Attorney General Edwin Meese holding aloft his report on pornography in front of the female statue.
The awkward composition of the lead photo in the linked article is a decent example in itself.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cover-up-at-justice-department/
Thankfully his successor fixed this. This latest fad is just the next generation of the same puritanism.