Indictments could be coming in the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents, according to former Attorney General William Barr.
Barr appeared on Fox News on Wednesday to discuss the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago and its investigation.
Co-host Dana Perino asked, “Do you have a view on how it ends?”
“As I’ve said all along, there are two questions,” Barr responded. “Will the government be able to make out a technical case, will they have evidence, by which, that they could indict somebody on, including him?”
He continued, “That’s the first question, and I think they are getting very close to that point, frankly.”
Barr went on to share the second question, “Do you indict a former president? What will that do to the country? What kind of precedent will it set? Will the people really understand that this is not failing to return a library book? That this was serious.”
Watch the video below:
Bill Barr, Trump's former AG, on Trump possibly being indicted: "I think they're getting very close to that point, frankly" pic.twitter.com/dANTqoXOA3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 7, 2022
While the two-time attorney general made clear that “there is no scenario legally under which the president gets to keep the government documents, whether its classified or unclassified,” he poured cold water on the idea of prosecuting Trump.
“You have to worry about those things, and I hope that those kinds of factors will incline the administration not to indict him, because I don’t want to see him indicted. He’s a former president,” Barr said.
He added, “But I also think they will be under a lot of pressure to indict him because…if anyone else would’ve gotten indicted, why not indict him?”
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that a third party, a special master, will have to review documents seized during the Mar-a-Lago raid on Aug. 8 in order to address questions about attorney-client privilege or executive privilege.
“In addition to being deprived of potentially significant personal documents, which alone creates a real harm, Plaintiff faces an unquantifiable potential harm by way of improper disclosure of sensitive information to the public,” Cannon wrote.
The ruling also temporarily blocked parts of the investigation.
On Tuesday, Barr criticized that ruling as he said, “The opinion, I think, was wrong and I think the government should appeal it.”
“It’s deeply flawed in a number of ways. I don’t think the appointment of a special master is going to hold up,” he continued.
Barr added, “The government has strong evidence of what it needs to determine whether the charges are appropriate, which is government documents were taken, classified information was taken and not handled appropriately.”
