Former AG Bill Barr: charges against Trump are 'very strong'

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Former President Donald Trump was heavily criticized by former Attorney General William Barr during a recent interview, where Barr expressed his concerns regarding Trump's actions and potential involvement in criminal activities.

During an interview on CBS News's "Face The Nation," Barr commented on the federal indictment against the president and two additional criminal cases, the Daily Wire reported.

Following Trump's criticism of Barr last week, Barr's comments come in response to his unfavorable assessment of the legal predicament Trump is in. Trump referred to Barr as “a slob,” “a stupid person,” “a coward,” “a low life,” and a “gutless pig.”

Having served under both Trump and former President George H.W. Bush, the ex-attorney general acknowledged the veracity of Trump being subjected to unjustified witch hunts in the past.

“But that doesn’t obviate the fact that he’s also a fundamentally flawed person who engages in reckless conduct, and that leads to situations, calamitous situations like this, which are very destructive and hurt any political cause he’s associated with,” Barr said. “And this was a case, entirely of his own making. He had no right to those documents. The government tried for over a year, quietly and with respect, to get them back, which was essential that they do, and he jerked them around.”

According to Barr, the former president's retention of the documents lacked any legal justification, and Barr asserts his belief that Trump misled the Department of Justice.
Barr added that the criminal obstruction charges against Trump are “very strong” because “a lot of the evidence comes from his own lawyers.”

Challenging Trump's notion of being protected by the Presidential Records Act, the former attorney general vehemently disagreed, emphasizing that the statute's primary objective, established after the Watergate scandal, was to prevent presidents from removing official documents from the White House.

When asked about Trump’s sentence if he’s convicted, Barr stated, “I don’t like the idea of a former president serving time in prison.”

“Trump has many good qualities, and he accomplished some good things,” Barr added. “But the fact of the matter is, he is a consummate narcissist. And he constantly engages in reckless conduct that puts his political followers at risk and the conservative and Republican agenda at risk.”

He continued that Trump “will always put his own interests, and gratifying his own ego, ahead of everything else, including the country’s interest, there’s no question about it," adding that the situation Trump finds himself in is “a perfect example of that.”

“He’s like a nine-year-old, defiant nine-year-old kid who’s always pushing the glass toward the edge of the table, defying his parents to stop him from doing it,” Barr said. “It’s a means of self-assertion and exerting his dominance over other people. And he’s a very petty individual who will always put his interests ahead of the country’s, his personal gratification of his ego. But our country can’t be a therapy session for a troubled man like this.”

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