Former AG Bill Barr predicts Trump indictment is near, sticks up for Justice Department

Former Attorney General Bill Barr predicted that an indictment of his former boss is getting closer while also defending the U.S. Department of Justice and special counsel Jack Smith as buzz builds over what will be an unprecedented federal charge against the frontrunner of a major U.S. political party, former President Donald J. Trump.

Barr dropped by the set for Tuesday’s edition of “CBS Mornings” where he chatted with host Gayle King about the latest developments in the great Trump hunt after a Monday visit by the former president’s lawyers to the DOJ where they met with federal prosecutors as speculation over when exactly Smith will make his move by pulling the trigger on the indictment(s) swirls.

“What does it say to you? What is the significance? Because you know how this game is played. You know this record. You know this song. What did it say to you?” King asked of Trump’s legal representatives’ visit to the Justice Department.

“I think that meeting was probably held to complain about some aspects of the special counsel’s work, because generally the special counsel is generally independent and can make up their own mind. And I think they probably went to Main Justice, which is where this meeting was held, to complain about the claim that the special counsel hasn’t been following the rules,” Barr replied.

“But does it say to you that an indictment is near?” King inquired with a follow-up question.

“I suspect it’s, I suspect it’s near. I’ve said for a while that I think this is the most dangerous legal risk facing the former president. And if I had to bet, I would bet that it’s near,” Barr said.

The former top law enforcement official was asked if he thought that the DOJ had enough evidence.

“Well, they won’t indict if there’s not enough evidence. But from what I’ve seen, there’s substantial evidence there,” Barr said.

“And if there is a federal indictment… do you think that that hurts him politically?” King asked. “You know, it seems that whenever he’s indicted or he’s under scrutiny, his numbers go up, the support goes up, the donations go up. Do you think a federal indictment will make a difference? And I know it won’t for his core base.”

“So in the immediate future it might,” Barr replied, adding, “But I think if this is based on the facts, as the facts come out, I think over time people will say that this is not a case of the Department of Justice, you know, conducting a witch hunt.”

“In fact, they approached this very delicately and with deference to the president. And this would have gone nowhere had the president just returned the documents. But he jerked them around for a year and a half. And the question is, did he deceive them?” Barr continued.

“And if there’s evidence of that, I think people will start to see that this says more about Trump than it does the Department of Justice, and that is that he’s so egotistical that he has this penchant for conducting, you know, risky, reckless acts to show that he can sort of get away with it,” he added. “It’s part of asserting his ego. And he’s done this repeatedly at the expense of all the people who depend on him to conduct the public’s business in an honorable way. And, you know, we saw that with both impeachments. And there’s no excuse for what he did here, Whether it’s a crime or not, remains to be seen.”

In a Tuesday morning missive from his Truth Social platform, the target raged that the objective is to remove him from the playing field and deny him a chance at returning to the White House.

“It’s all about ELECTION INTERFERENCE. They don’t want to run against me. I ran twice, I did much better the second time, getting millions and millions more votes than the first, a record for a sitting President, and am leading Biden in the polls, by a lot. They are the Party of Disinformation! They are using the DOJ & FBI against me to Rigg the 2024 Election. They’ll hit Hunter with something small to make their strike on me look “fair.” Nothing about these Fascists is fair or honest. FIGHT!” Trump wrote.

(Image: Screengrab/Truth Social)

“The Marxists and Fascists in the DOJ & FBI are going after me at a level and speed never seen before in our Country, and I did nothing wrong,” Trump said in another Truth Social post.

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Chris Donaldson

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