Bill Barr says DOJ is getting ‘very close’ to having the evidence to indict Trump after Mar-a-Lago raid: ‘This is not just failing to return a library book’
- Barr said the DOJ is faced with two questions – whether it has the evidence to indict Trump and whether it should
- ‘I think they’re getting very close to that, frankly,’ Barr said on Fox News of the DOJ having the evidence for indictment
- Barr said he hopes DOJ will not indict Trump to avoiding igniting further tensions throughout the country
- ‘I also think there’ll be under a lot of pressure to indict him, because one question is, look, if anyone else would have gotten indicted, why not indict him?’
Former Attorney General Bill Barr predicted the Department of Justice is ‘very close’ to having enough evidence to indict Donald Trump, though he said he hopes they will not take such action.
Barr said the DOJ is faced with two questions – whether it has the evidence to indict Trump and whether it should.
‘I think they’re getting very close to that, frankly,’ Barr said on Fox News of the DOJ having the evidence for indictment.
He added: ‘I think at the end of the day, there’s another question that is do you indict a former president? What will that do to the country? What kind of precedent will that set- will the people really understand that this is not, you know, failing to return a library book that this was serious?’
Barr said he hopes DOJ will not indict Trump to avoiding igniting further tensions throughout the country.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr predicted the Department of Justice is ‘very close’ to having enough evidence to indict Donald Trump, though he said he hopes they will not take such action
‘I hope that those kinds of factors will incline the administration not to indict him because I don’t want to see him indicted as a former president. But I also think there’ll be under a lot of pressure to indict him, because one question is, look, if anyone else would have gotten indicted, why not indict him?’
Barr also said he disagrees with Trump appointee Judge Eileen Cannon’s ruling which blocks the DOJ from viewing and appoints a special master to review the documents taken from Mar-a-Lago and said he hopes the government appeals the ruling.
‘The problem I have with the special master is what she’s done on what’s called executive privilege documents. And she didn’t address the only question that’s in dispute, which is, can the former president have standing to say that the investigators don’t even get to look at the classified documents that he wrongfully had at Mar-a-Lago,’ he said.
Barr said the DOJ is faced with two questions – whether it has the evidence to indict Trump and whether it should
‘She dodges it, and then she says she’s bringing in a special master to look at whether stuff is executive privilege or not. That’s not what the dispute is,’ Barr said. ‘I hope it’s appealed.’
Barr also explained why personal documents like Trump’s passports were taken, arguing that they were evidence of the way classified documents were stored alongside personal documents.
‘If you find very sensitive documents in Trump’s desk along with his passports, that ties Trump to those documents,’ Barr said. ‘The fact they’re found with the classified documents is evidentiary, and the government decides whether it’s relevant.’
Barr has unleashed a barrage of criticism on his former boss since the Aug. 8 raid where the FBI recovered more than 11,000 government documents and photographs.
In another Fox interview on Friday the former attorney general said he doubted Trump’s claims that he had declassified every document taken from Mar-a-Lago.
Barr has unleashed a barrage of criticism on his former boss since the Aug. 8 raid where the FBI recovered more than 11,000 government documents and photographs
A view of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.
But if Trump indeed ‘stood over scores of boxes, not really knowing what was in them and said, ‘I hereby declassify everything in here,’ that would be such an abuse and that shows such recklessness that it’s almost worse than taking the documents,’ Barr said.
Barr is a former ally-turned-critic who quit his role in the last weeks of the Trump presidency, as his boss claimed the 2020 election was stolen.
In recent days he has taken to television to defend the Department of Justice and the FBI for its search of Mar-a-Lago.
‘The facts are starting to show that they were being jerked around, so how long do they wait?’ Barr told Fox News on Friday.
After that appearance, Trump took to Truth Social to say that Barr ‘started off OK as A.G., but faded fast.’
‘He was a weak and pathetic RINO, who was so afraid of being Impeached that he became a captive to the Radical Left Democrats,’ Trump continued.
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