‘Categorically Incorrect!’ Ex-Judge Roasts Bill Barr To CNN’s Jake Tapper Over Trump Ballot Ban

Retired Judge Michael Luttig roasted ex-AG Bill Barr to CNN anchor Jake Tapper over Barr’s “categorically incorrect” take on former President Donald Trump’s ballot ban.

On Wednesday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, Barr sharply denounced the Colorado Supreme Court’s bombshell ruling banning Trump from the ballot on the grounds that he violated the 14th Amendment by engaging in insurrection on January 6.

Later in the show, Tapper asked Luttig to directly respond to Barr’s take, and the judge did not pull punches:

TAPPER: What’s your reaction?

J. MICHAEL LUTTIG, RETIRED FEDERAL JUDGE: Jake, thanks for having me on this evening. It’s always a pleasure. The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision yesterday was a judicial masterpiece of constitutional interpretation of section three of the 14th Amendment. The opinion and the decision are unassailable, and irrefutable. I did not have the opportunity to see the former attorney general on your show earlier.

Based on that segment that I just heard, the former attorney general is categorically incorrect to the extent that he was commenting on the legal sufficiency of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision. It was in every single respect, not only under state law, but more importantly, under the federal constitutional law. An impeccable decision, as I said, irrefutable.

TAPPER: So one of the arguments that Attorney General Barr made was that he didn’t think that even though there was a four or five day trial in the District Court in Denver about Donald Trump, which asserted that Donald Trump had actually engaged in insurrection, he didn’t think that that was enough of a trial to meet the standard that should exist to find that a U.S. president has engaged in insurrection or former president has engaged in insurrection. He said there was — there just wasn’t enough due process. What would your argument to that be?

LUTTIG: Mr. Barr is simply incorrect in that assessment, Jake.

TAPPER: Now that this is —

LUTTIG: There’s not even an argument that — there’s not even an argument that the former president was denied a due process in the course of the Colorado proceedings.

TAPPER: Now that this is likely to be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court, you’ve said this will be the single most important decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in our nation’s history. Why do you say that? What do you think is at stake here?

LUTTIG: Well, it is the most pressing and consequential constitutional issue today facing America. And when and if the Supreme Court decides this case out of Colorado, then it’s the Supreme Court’s decision will be historic. And it will be an historic decision for American democracy, for the Constitution itself, and for the rule of law in America. Needless to say, never before in our history as a former president even been prosecuted for criminal conduct, let alone tried by a jury. In this instance, a former president will be tried for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election by the terms of the 14th amendment.

According to the Colorado Supreme Court, his conduct constituted an insurrection or rebellion against the Constitution of the United States —

TAPPER: Right.

LUTTIG: — leading him possibly to be disqualified. So when the Supreme Court decides that decision, it will ipso facto be one of the most consequential constitutional decisions in American history.

Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.