Global Courant
Former Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday dismissed claims that Donald Trump’s federal indictment is undermined by the Presidential Records Act as “farcical,” telling Fox News that the 45th president engaged in blatant obstruction.
In “Special Report,” host Bret Baier presented Barr with comments from former Reagan Justice Department Chief of Staff Mark Levin who argued that a president “is” the executive branch and that his presidential powers stem from the Constitution, not from “subordinates” within the government. the branch.
Levin, who worked under Attorney General Edwin Meese III and is now a “Life, Liberty & Levin” host, cited the 2010 Clinton Socks case in which Obama-appointed Judge Amy Berman Jackson sided with Judicial Watch — which had asked to listen to sensitive tape recordings that Clinton kept in his sock drawer.
“Yes, I think the position is being taken that this is really just a document dispute over the preservation of documents and that the president has good arguments as to why he should have kept them – I think the arguments are farcical and will be shown as such” said Barr on “Special Report.”
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William Barr and Donald Trump (Win McNamee/Getty Images // Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
“But I also think, more importantly, they are an afterthought and they distract from the real issue,” said Barr, who also served as attorney general under President George HW Bush.
Barr said Trump is being prosecuted more for obstruction and under more fire for what he did after he received a federal subpoena for documents.
If Trump thought he had a good argument for why the documents should remain in Mar-a-Lago, he should have filed a motion to quash the subpoena, Barr said.
“He could have given the documents to the government and then sued to get them back and put forward his legal arguments as to why they really belong to him,” he argued.
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Special Prosecutor Jack Smith (Fox News screenshot/AP photo)
“But he didn’t. What did he do? He engaged in an outrageous act of obstruction and deception that obstructed that subpoena. And that’s wrong. That’s a violation of the law. That’s a serious issue for him.”
Barr said the indictment alleged Trump “hid” documents from his lawyers and then asked his defense counsel to search for what was left.
Trump, for his part, has called Barr “gutless” and recently told longtime friend Roger Stone during an interview that Barr failed at the DOJ.
“I think he’s a coward who didn’t do his job. He was desperately afraid of being impeached,” Trump told Stone, a longtime Republican adviser with experience dating back to elections involving the then senator. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., and President Richard Nixon.
“We had incredible people, as you know, in the administration. But you also had some that we got wrong. And Bill Barr was a mistake,” Trump claimed.
Barr essentially laughed at Trump’s claims that he is cowardly, riffing: “He said I was a cowardly lowlife, and obviously I have a feeling. So that will shed light on his veracity there.”
Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.
Born in Pennsylvania, Charles graduated from Temple University with a BA in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.
