Former Attorney General Bill Barr called Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggâs hush-money case against former President Donald Trump an âabominationâ on Wednesday.
Additionally, Barr revealed, despite past differences and concerns about a Trump second term, that he plans to vote for the presumptive GOP nominee in November.
Regarding Braggâs charges against Trump, Barr told Fox News, âIâve said from the beginning this case is an abomination. You know itâs obviously political, seven years after he pays hush money, to try to come up with this case.â
âItâs not only far-fetched, theyâre trying to predicate it on a federal crime, which wasnât prosecuted. And theyâre wrong about it. This was not a campaign contribution. Theyâre just wrong on the law,â the former Trump AG added.
The apparent theory of Braggâs case is that then-Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen made an in-kind contribution to the Trump presidential campaign in excess of federal limits.
According to Bragg, Cohen paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Nondisclosure agreements are very common and generally legal. Daniels has alleged that she and Trump had a sexual encounter in 2006.
The $130,000 didnât go to, nor did the alleged reimbursement come from, Trumpâs presidential campaign. Cohen was reimbursed by the Trump Organization in early 2017, according to Braggâs indictment.
Further, Trump could have had other reasons he didnât want Danielsâ allegation made public, besides whatever impact it may have had on his candidacy.
Prior to Braggâs indictment, federal prosecutors and the Federal Election Commission had already reviewed the payments to Daniels and declined to charge Trump.
Barr observed that Braggâs case against Trump is part of a larger problem.
âTo me, this shows the real threat to liberty, the real threat to our system are the excesses of the Progressive left. Theyâre perverting the system of justice and thatâs where the danger lies: the corruption and the subversion of our institutions by the left,â he said.
Asked whether he would support Trump for president, Barr responded, âWell, Iâve said all along, given two bad choices, I think itâs my duty to pick the person I think would do the least harm to the country, and in my mind, I will vote the Republican ticket. I will support the Republican ticket.â
âI think the real danger to our country, the real danger to democracy is ⌠the Progressive agenda,â he emphasized.
With Trump, the United States âmay be playing Russian roulette, but continuation of the Biden administration is national suicide,â Barr said.
Several legal experts have called Braggâs case against Trump weak.
George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley described it as a âFrankenstein caseâ based on resurrected alleged misdemeanor business record violations.
âSo many of us are just amazed to watch this actually walk into court, because itâs not a recognizable crime that any of us have seen,â he said.
Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy argued in a Monday piece for National Review, âTrumpâs best defense ⌠is not necessarily to establish that he is not guilty; rather, it is to establish that, if he is guilty of anything, it is merely of the misdemeanor. If the jury so finds, I believe the case would have to be thrown out.â
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
