Bill Barr Says DOJ Prosecutors ‘Probably Have the Basis for Legitimately Indicting’ Trump

Former Attorney General Bill Barr said the Department of Justice seems to “have the basis for legitimately indicting” his ex-boss, former President Donald Trump.

On Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the DOJ is handing over its investigations into Trump to a special counsel. Garland said the move is in the “public interest” after Trump declared his candidacy for president earlier this week.

The DOJ has been probing Trump’s role in the Capitol insurrection, and also his handling of official documents upon leaving office. Some of those materials are reportedly classified. Trump was supposed to give all government documents to the National Archives, but instead brought thousands of them to his Mar-a-Lago estate. After his attorneys claimed no government documents remained at Trump’s residence, the FBI executed a search warrant and found thousands more.

Appearing on Friday’s Firing Line on PBS, Barr stated that from the outside, the DOJ appears to have what it needs to indict Trump over the classified documents.

“In your view, is there ever a circumstance where you think it’s appropriate to indict a former president,” host Margaret Hoover asked.

Here is Barr’s reply and subsequent exchange with Hoover:

BARR: Oh, yes. If a former president commits a crime, you know, especially a serious crime, they should be indicted for it. If the Department of Justice can show that these were indeed very sensitive documents, which I think they probably were, and also show that the president consciously was involved in misleading the department, deceiving the government, and playing games after he had received the subpoena for the documents, those are serious charges. That’s serious.

HOOVER: That’s a serious enough crime?

BARR: Well, I’ve said that I personally think that they probably have the basis for legitimately indicting the [former] president. I don’t know, I’m speculating. But given what’s gone on, I think they probably have the evidence that would check the box. They have the case.

HOOVER: And if they have it, should they?

BARR: That’s a decision for–

HOOVER: If you were AG, would you?

BARR: I’m not going to get into that.

HOOVER: Do you think they will?

BARR: I think it’s becoming increasingly more likely.

HOOVER: And you think it would be appropriate if they did?

BARR: Well, this is what the attorney general gets paid [for]–these kinds of decisions. You know, the argument for doing it is that if you let someone like this who, you know–if the facts are as raw as they may be and you let someone get away with it, how can you protect these secrets? How can you insist on people in government taking this stuff seriously?

So, you know, that’s an important thing to weigh, as well as what it will do to the country and to the office of the presidency. And I think Merrick Garland is going to have to make that call.

Even though Garland handed the Trump investigations to a special counsel, ultimately it will be his decision whether to prosecute the former president.

Watch above via PBS.