Barr blasts Trump’s defense in document case as ‘absurd’

Former Attorney General Bill Barr blasted former President Trump’s defense in the classified documents case as “absurd” and said the former president “absolutely” was mischaracterizing the Presidential Records Act.

“The legal theory by which he gets to take battle plans and sensitive national security information as his personal papers is absurd. It’s just as wacky as the legal doctrine they came up with for having the vice president unilaterally determine who won the election,” Barr told Robert Costa on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” in an interview Sunday morning.

Trump was not charged with violating the Presidential Records Act, but he and some supporters have cited the act to claim Trump was allowed to take the sensitive material after he left the White House.

“The whole purpose of the statute, the Presidential Records Act, was to stop presidents from taking official documents out of the White House. It was passed after Watergate. That’s the whole purpose of it. And therefore, it restricted what a president can take. It says it’s purely private, that have nothing to do with the deliberations of government policy,” Barr said Sunday.

“Obviously, these documents are not purely private, it’s obvious. And they’re not even now arguing that it’s purely private. What they’re saying is the President just has sweeping discretion to say they are, even though they squarely don’t fall within the definition. It’s an absurd argument,” Barr added.

Trump was indicted on 37 counts of criminal charges related to his handling of classified documents. He was accused of obstructing a federal investigation and willfully retaining national defense information. He pleaded not guilty.

Barr broke with Trump in 2020 when the former attorney general would not uphold claims of voter fraud. He is among a list of past administration officials who have voiced criticisms of the former president following the indictment.

Barr also said Republicans who point to this case as evidence of the Justice Department acting politically are “wrong.” 

“The Department had no choice but to seek those documents. [Those Republicans’] basic argument really isn’t to defend his conduct, because Trump’s conduct is indefensible. What they’re really saying is, he should get a pass because Hillary Clinton got a pass six or seven years ago,” Barr said. “That’s not a frivolous argument. But I’m not sure that’s true.”

“If you want to restore the rule of law and equal justice, you don’t do it by further derogating from justice. You do it by applying the right standard here. And that’s not unfair to Trump because this is not a case where Trump is innocent and being unfairly hounded. He committed the crime, or if he did commit the crime, it’s not unfair to hold them to that standard,” he said.