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Bill Barr rejects Trump being a victim of witch hunt after indictment: ‘If even half of it is true, he’s toast’

June 11, 2023 | | Print Article

Former Attorney General Bill Barr suggested on Sunday that the GOP needs to come up with another way of spinning the DOJ’s 37-count indictment of former President Donald Trump.

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Barr told host Shannon Bream, “It’s a very detailed indictment. And it’s very, very damning. And this idea of presenting Trump as a victim here, a victim of a witch hunt, is ridiculous.”

“Yes, he’s been a victim in the past,” the former AG conceded. “Yes, his adversaries have obsessively pursued him with phony claims, and I’ve been at his side defending against them when he is a victim. But this is much different. He’s not a victim here.”

Barr said he was “shocked” by the documents Trump had at his Mar-a-Lago home — documents, he said, “that Trump had no right to have.”

“I was shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were, frankly,” he told Bream.

“I think the counts under the Espionage Act, that he willfully retained those documents, are solid counts,” he added.

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Trump “was totally wrong that he had the right to have those documents,” Barr stated. “Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets that the country has. They have to be in the custody of the archivist. He had no right to maintain them and retain them.”

“If even half of it is true, he’s toast,” Barr predicted, quoting former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy.

“It’s a devastating document. If they can prove half of it, he’s toast,” McCarthy said Friday on Fox News Radio’s “Guy Benson Show.”

“And I sense that they can probably prove more than half of it,” he added, “because a lot of it is recorded conversations, testimony from his lawyers, and that sort of thing.”

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According to Barr, his former boss kept the classified documents “in a way, at Mar-a-Lago, that anyone who really cares about national security — their stomach would churn at it.”

Unlike with the “Russia hoax,” Barr argued, “I think the government acted responsibly” when they went after Trump for the documents.

“They gave him every opportunity to return those documents,” he said. “They acted with restraint. They were very deferential to him, and they were very patient.”

“They talked to him for almost a year to get those documents,” Barr said, “and he jerked them around.”

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On Twitter, Barr’s remarks sparked fury among Trump supporters.

“I am shocked how venomous this fat pig is,” one user tweeted.

“NOBODY CARES WHAT BILL BARR HAS TO SAY,” another exclaimed in all caps.

Another astute user questioned how Barr knew what was in those “sensitive” documents.

“If the documents are that sensitive, how would Barr know what they contained other than hearsay?” the user asked. “This dude is part of the swamp. The truth will set you free…”

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Melissa Fine
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