Former Attorney General Bill Barr has accused Donald Trump of an outrageous act of obstructing his conduct in the classified documents case
Barr told Fox News that Trump even tricked his lawyer into hiding files at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
“He could have given the documents to the government and then sued to bring them back and presented his legal arguments as to why they are really his,” he said.
‘But he didn’t do that. What did he do? He engaged in an outrageous act of obstruction and deception that prevented this subpoena.
Bill Barr has become a staunch critic of his former boss in recent weeks, slamming him for his conduct in the classified documents case
His remarks echo those made by Francis X. Suarez, the mayor of Miami who has just announced his own presidential race.
Barr served in the Trump administration, but resigned in December 2020 over the former commander-in-chief’s false claims that winning Joe Biden was a solution.
The 77-year-old property mogul, who celebrated his birthday on Wednesday, lashed out at his former presidential legal eagle, calling him ‘gutless’.
I think he’s a coward who didn’t do his job. He was desperately afraid of being impeached,’ Trump said in an interview with longtime friend Roger Stone.
“We had amazing people, as you know, in administration. But you also had it that we were wrong. And Bill Barr was a mistake,’
Barr took issue with claims by Trump loyalists that the federal case in Miami should be handled under the Presidential Records Act.
Top Lawyer supported the most serious charges brought under the Espionage Act by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
He said in a previous interview with Fox that Trump would “toast” if there was evidence that they would appear in court.
The National Archives and Records Administration soon discovered after Trump left the White House in January 2021 that he had taken presidential papers with him.
Gary Stern, a lawyer at the National Archives, asked the former president’s team for the return of documents.
Donald Trump was advised for more than two years by his lawyers to return the documents, but refused
In the spring of 2021, some of Trump’s attorneys and advisers began recommending that he hand over the documents.
In the fall of 2021, Alex Cannon, who was Trump’s attorney at the time, told his client he had to return them.
He warned the former president that the records threatened to go to Congress or the Justice Department if he did not return them.
He eventually returned 15 boxes of documents to the National Archives in January 2022.
There were still more left, and Trump was angered by repeated attempts to get him to hand over the rest.
Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, urged Trump to fight back against efforts to get him the documents, according to the Washington Post
Alex Cannon, a former lawyer for Trump, told the businessman in fall 2021 that he had to turn over the documents and warned that the national archives were threatening to go to Congress or the Justice Department s he didn’t return them.
Seven people familiar with the investigation say he deceived his own advisers, telling them the boxes contained only newspaper clippings and clothing.
In April 2022, he received a subpoena to force him to fire them, and his new attorney, Evan Corcoran, told him he had to comply.
But Trump has been persuaded by other allies such as Judicial Watch chairman Tom Fitton and adviser Boris Epshteyn that he should fight back efforts to recover the papers.
The move sparked the investigation led by Jack Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor turned Trump hunter.
