(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Bill Barr on Trump's classified docs legal peril: 'He had no claim to those documents' [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-09 Watch: x Former Attorney General Bill Barr tells @JonKarl that former Pres. Trump should be “most concerned” about the classified documents case out of Mar-a-Lago. “He had no claim to those documents…I think they probably have some very good evidence there.” https://t.co/XVBy0myVr6 pic.twitter.com/awpeJFZhnR — This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 9, 2023 KARL: “So you mentioned the other cases—there’s at least three other criminal cases. You have the two brought by the special prosecutor, the case in Georgia, Jan. 6, classified documents, obstruction of justice. What do you think, if you were advising the former president, which obviously you’re not, which would you be most concerned about?” BARR: “I’d be most concerned about the document case in Mar-a-Lago because, from what I can see … When it first came out, a lot of Republicans manned the ramparts and were dumping all over the FBI and the government, and as the facts have come out—as I suggested when I spoke about it—the FBI was opposed to conducting the search. They weren’t involved in launching the search. But also, those steps were taken after a long period, about a year and a half, of trying to get the documents from him, which he had no claim to. He had no claim to those documents, especially the classified documents. They belong to the government. And so I think he was jerking the government around, and they subpoenaed it, and they tried to jawbone him into delivering the documents, but the government is investigating the extent to which games were played, and there was obstruction in keeping the documents from them. And I think that’s a serious potential case. I think they probably have some very good evidence there.” Hmm. Maybe there’s good evidence because Trump commits all his crimes out in the open? They probably have loads of documentation. And they’re no doubt collecting more as we speak. After all, there’s no need to spy on Trump or bug his office. You can simply tell an intern to tape Sean Hannity’s show. Because Trump is evidently proud of his crimes and rarely misses an opportunity to talk about them. Meanwhile, Barr is less than sanguine about Republicans’ prospects going into the 2024 election cycle, considering that so many in the party seem determined to stay hitched to Trump’s fading star. x On special counsel Jack Smith, Barr tells @JonKarl: “He is a very dogged, aggressive prosecutor who will get to the bottom of what happened." "This is one of the things that leads me to believe that if there is a case to be made, it will be brought.” https://t.co/dyQCRKJg64 pic.twitter.com/3q6GoR22TK — This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 9, 2023 KARL: “He’s also attacked, not surprisingly, Jack Smith, the special counsel on this. What’s your assessment of Jack Smith?” BARR: “I don't know him well, but by reputation he’s a very dogged, aggressive prosecutor who will get to the bottom of what happened. This is one of the things that leads me to believe that if there’s a case there to be made, it will be brought. Because, I think, the attorney general would have selected another kind of special counsel if he wanted more discretion exercised—like, ‘well, yeah, there’s a case, but we don’t want to bring a case here because there’s a lot of reasons … it might hurt the public interest to do it or something.’ But I think here the decision has been made that if there’s a case, it will be brought. And I still think that that’s the likely posture of the government.” KARL: “And he’s also unlikely to bring a case that he thinks he’s going to lose. What do you think the likelihood at the end of the day that we’re actually going to see Donald Trump convicted and sentenced to prison?” BARR: “Well, I don’t think anything’s going to happen before a nomination is made and even perhaps until the election—the ‘24 election. This stuff is going to drag out through ‘24, and it’s going to stymie and disrupt the whole Republican primary process. And … I think part of the reasoning behind it is that they know this is a red flag to a big portion of Trump’s base, and that they’re going to rally to him because they feel this is persecution, and that will strengthen Trump’s hand throughout the process. I also think that as far as the general election is concerned, it will gravely weaken Trump. He’s already, I think, a weak candidate that would lose, but I think this sort of assures it.” So maybe Barr is finally learning that it’s best to cut a cancer out of your body before it’s metastasized to a third of the country’s brains. Barr didn’t jump off the MAGA bandwagon until Trump started plotting his infamous clown car coup, and now we’re all forced to endure the fallout. That said, people have declared Trump dead and buried before. He can still run for president from prison, after all. Back in 2016, I would have thought it highly unlikely, if not impossible, for a guy with a crudely inked Aryan Nation neck tattoo to be elected president of the United States. But now? Who the fuck knows, really? Check out Aldous J. Pennyfarthing’s four-volume Trump-trashing compendium, including the finale, Goodbye, Asshat: 101 Farewell Letters to Donald Trump, at this link. Or, if you prefer a test drive, you can download the epilogue to Goodbye, Asshat for the low, low price of FREE. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/9/2162988/-Bill-Barr-on-Trump-s-classified-docs-legal-peril-I-think-that-s-a-serious-potential-case Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/