Donald Trump's former attorney general, Bill Barr, said Fox News on Friday that there was no "legitimate purpose" for the former president to keep confidential information at his Florida club. Additionally, he backed the Justice Department's choice to search Mar-a-Lago, saying that the DOJ was "being pushed around" by Team Trump.The Justice Department revealed on Friday how irresponsible the former president had been with state secrets at his private club, as a federal court considers whether or not to grant Trump's request for a "special master" to review the records taken from his property last month.
The agency documented Trump's careless mixing of "TOP SECRET" materials with magazines, books, and his wife's clothing in an eight-page inventory list. There were supposedly 43 empty folders with "CLASSIFIED" flags in one box that was discovered in the former president's office. Federal prosecutors are debating whether to bring espionage and obstruction of justice charges against Trump.
Barr, who has cut ties with Trump due to the former president's alleged election fraud, made an appearance on Fox News' America Reports on Friday afternoon. He quickly dismissed Team Trump's efforts to appoint a special master.
He bluntly said, "Well, I believe the whole idea of a particular master is a bit of a red herring. He continued by saying that none of the private lawyer conversations that should be shielded from government access have been identified by Trump's lawyers, and that everything else appeared to be "seizable" by the government.
All of the other documents that were taken, Barr said, "even those that claim executive privilege, either belong to the government because they are government records, even if they are classified, even if they are subject to executive privilege, they still belong to the government and go to the [National Archives]."
Additionally, he continued, "any other documents recovered, such as press clippings and other items in the boxes containing the classified material, were seizeable under the warrant because they reflect the circumstances in which the classified information was being stored." So, I believe it to be a red herring. Given that they have already reviewed the documents, I believe it would be a waste of time at this point.
John Roberts, the co-anchor, pointed out that Trump and his friends have asserted that the former president had a "standing order" to declassify any records he took from the White House after he left office.
Are such materials in the former president's hands for any justifiable reason? Roberts enquired.
“No. Barr said, "If they are classified, I can't think of a good reason why they should have been—could be taken out of the government, away from the government. "I honestly doubt the assertion that he declassified everything,"
"You know, because frankly, I think it's highly improbable, and second, if in fact he sort of stood over scores of boxes without really knowing what was inside of them and said, "I hereby declassify everything in here," that would be such an abuse and that shows such recklessness it's almost worse than taking the documents," the former AG continued.
After adding that "there are some issues over the date," co-anchor Sandra Smith continued by stating that some detractors could have thought there was a better way for the authorities to collect these papers without searching the president's house. Echoing Team Trump's claims that they were "cooperating" with the government, she questioned whether the raid "was preventable" and whether the DOJ could have just filed a second subpoena to collect the records.
Barr didn't mince words once more.
"I believe that if they have pursued the matter to this degree, they likely have pretty solid proof. But until we see that, it's difficult to determine," he said. "That's just guesswork.
Let me just add that I believe that Mar-a-storage Lago's of tons of secret information was the driving force behind this from the start. People claim that this was unprecedented, so let's not forget that it was also unprecedented for the president to place all of this confidential information in a country club, OK?
And how long will the government keep trying to get that back? asked Barr. They were misled about the voluntary steps they took, they went and received a subpoena and were misled about that, they believe they were being jerked around, and the facts are starting to support that, so how long do they wait?!"
In the end, the former nation's top prosecutor warned that the DOJ may very well arrest the former president for hoarding sensitive materials, even if Barr said he hopes "that doesn't happen."
“If they plainly show the president shifting stuff around and hiding something in his desk and ordering people to—they may be inclined to bring the case,” he added. And there are divergent views on whether that is logical. But in order to see and judge it, we truly need to know the facts.
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