Asked whether he would be agreeable to testify in the third indictment hearing against former president Donald Trump, one-time attorney general Bill Barr responded, “Of course.”
Speaking to host Major Garrett on CBS’ “Face the Nation”, Barr said that while he felt that the latest indictment against his old boss was a hard case to make and that there is “a lot of confusion” about it, he believes that the complaint does not “run afoul of the First Amendment.” However, Barr refused to answer the question of whether or not he was interviewed by Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith about the case.
Barr also asserted that his office conducted a thorough investigation of whether or not fraud occurred in the 2020 presidential elections, and was “satisfied” with the results, which showed that there was “no basis for concluding that there had been fraud.”
Third Time’s the Charm?
Former president Trump was indicted recently – his third since losing the seat at the White House to Joe Biden – on charges that allege he made efforts to overturn the results of the U.S. 2020 presidential election. The indictment also indicates six other alleged co-conspirators who helped Trump in “obstructing a bedrock function” of the United States government. Unlike Trump though, these six individuals were not named in the complaint and are not facing charges at this time.
True to his bombastic character, Trump has categorically denied all charges and blasted the special counsel on his Truth Social account, calling Smith “deranged” and claiming that the judge who will preside over the case, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, “must be recused”, but did not specify why. His campaign spared no words either, calling the case the “latest corrupt chapter” by the “Biden Crime Family” to disrupt Trump’s position as “undisputed frontrunner” in the upcoming presidential elections next year.
In the CBS interview, Barr said that while the indictment is “legitimate” from a prosecutor’s standpoint, the case is a “challenging” one.
Donald Trump and Barr: A complicated relationship
Barr’s current relationship with his former boss is hard to describe or quantify. Following his departure from his old post in 2020, the former AG has not held back in his criticism of Trump – he recently said that Trump acted “irresponsibly” when the latter chose to keep a number of top-secret documents, which is the basis of his second indictment. Barr added that “in no universe” would those documents be considered “personal” – in his defense, Trump has said that his possession of the documents was just part of the exercise of his right to declassify and keep any documents from his stint in the White House.
In an interview with CNN on Trump’s current indictment, Barr called Trump’s actions as described in the complaint “despicable” and “nauseating”, adding that his old boss “knew that he had lost” his 2020 bid to stay in the White House.
That being said, Barr has also risen to defend Trump on a number of other occasions, also stating recently in another interview that the continued prosecution of the former president was “unjust” and likened it to the treatment of the former chief executive under what he called the “Russiagate scam”, where Trump was accused of allegedly colluding with Russian assets to secure his 2016 presidential win. And despite having his differences with the former commander-in-chief, Barr said that “at that very human level, I feel bad for him.”
Speaking to NPR last year, Barr accused the media of weaving a false narrative of him being a “toady” to then-president Trump. Barr asserts that he was independent from the very beginning. He has released a memoir, entitled “One Damn Thing After Another,” which chronicles his experiences and thoughts during his tenure as Attorney General during the Trump administration.
Tim Ramos has written for various publications, corporations, and organizations – covering everything from finance, politics, travel, entertainment, and sports – in Asia and the U.S. for more than 10 years.
