Former Attorney General Bill Barr sat down with Fox News anchor Bret Baier on Tuesday for a wide-ranging interview and alluded to the fact that he couldn’t rule out the idea that former President Trump might have sold pardons out of the White House while also calling Russia-gate a “grave injustice” to Trump.

(Video Credit: Fox News)

The issue of the alleged pardons was raised during the Fox News segment as Barr and Baier discussed Trump’s former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and new allegations being made against him.

A 70-page sexual assault complaint was filed against Giuliani in a New York court on Monday.

“This is someone who worked for Rudy Giuliani, who alleges not only sexual assault and harassment, but that she has evidence that he tried to sell pardons for $2 million apiece, which he and President Trump would split. Do you think that that’s possible?” Baier asked Barr.

“Uh, I’m skeptical about that. I don’t think Rudy Giuliani would do that. I hope he wouldn’t, but I don’t know,” Barr replied, leaving the door wide open to insinuate he would not put it past Trump to do such a thing and raising doubts about Giuliani as well.

https://twitter.com/marlahohner/status/1658605847889469446

Baier then turned to the Durham report and Trump’s chances of getting the GOP nomination to run for the presidency in 2024.

“Finally, to follow up on, you said you weren’t endorsing the former president in this run. He is up pretty much in every poll that you look at – significantly. Obviously, this race is at the beginning. But now you have this Durham report in which, you know, what he was saying is backed up by what’s in these pages. Do you think that helps him? And do you think he’s going to win the GOP nomination?” Baier asked Trump’s former cabinet member.

“I think it helps him in the short term,” Barr noted.

“My own view is that he will not win the nomination. And I have nothing personal against him. And there’s no you know, I have no antipathy toward him at all. But I just don’t think he’s the right leader for the Republican Party going forward. I think people who want to restore America should look for a big victory that brings strength into the Congress and allows us to achieve some fundamental changes. And I don’t think he’s capable of delivering that kind of victory,” he said disparaging the former president.

Despite his caustic take on Trump winning the nomination, Barr admitted that the Durham report shows that the former president was politically persecuted and that the whole Russia-gate fiasco was indeed a witch hunt.

(Video Credit: Fox News)

Baier asked Barr what he took away from Special Counsel John Durham’s report.

“I take away from it that it was a success in that its purpose from the very beginning was to get to the truth. It was not launched as a criminal investigation. And people who compare it to the Mueller investigation are simply wrong,” Barr asserted.

He stated that he tapped Durham to “get to the bottom of” the origins of the Russia investigation, and told him that any crimes found should be prosecuted. However, he contended that the primary goal was to substantiate how the Trump inquiry was launched.

“[Durham has] dug into it, and I think he’s gotten as close to the bottom as anyone is going to get to this,” Barr commented.

He pointed out that the probe found Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign launched a “smear” offensive against Trump by spreading potentially false information to the FBI as well as the media.

Bill Barr: Durham Report Shows Hillary Launched Smear Campaign Based on ‘Getting Russian Sources to Spread False Information’ pic.twitter.com/ZscyQOxLgD

— Alexandra Datig | Front Page Index 🇺🇸 (@alexdatig) May 17, 2023

“Both the press and the FBI abandoned any semblance of professionalism and took up the cause with a vengeance,” he continued. “And I think the real story here from the FBI’s perspective is what an abomination this was, this so-called investigation. If it wasn’t a witch hunt, it’s a damn good imitation of one.”

“But there was no collusion [with Russia],” Barr remarked.

He gave a nod to Trump’s “great policies” that were implemented while he was in office. Barr also was impressed that he was able to put them in place while dealing with unending investigations.

“[Trump] deserves a lot of credit for what he accomplished. And this [Russiagate] was a grave injustice. And the fact that he was able to accomplish a lot in the face of it, I think was a great achievement,” Barr argued.

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