Former US attorney-general William Barr says Donald Trump is “toast” if allegations that he wilfully retained hundreds of highly classified documents are proven true under Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 37-count indictment against the former president.
Key points:
- William Barr was former US president Donald Trump’s attorney-general from 2019 to 2020
- Mr Barr says the charges made against Mr Trump under the Espionage Act are “solid”
- Mr Trump says he will continue his 2024 presidential campaign even if he’s convicted
The indictment alleged Mr Trump — who is the current Republican front-runner in the 2024 White House race — held documents about military secrets and the US nuclear program after leaving the White House in early 2021.
Mr Trump kept documents that came from national intelligence agencies at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and his golf club in New Jersey, the indictment alleged.
Mr Barr, who was Mr Trump’s attorney-general from February 2019 to December 2020, defended Mr Smith’s indictment on Sunday.
“I was shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were, … and I think the counts under the Espionage Act that he wilfully retained those documents are solid counts,” he said.
“If even half of it is true, then he’s toast.”
Mr Trump responded to Mr Barr’s comments with criticism and insults, describing Mr Barr as a “lazy” and “weak” on his social media platform Truth Social.
Mr Trump said Mr Barr only made the comments because he was disgruntled and that they were misinformation.
“Turn off Fox News when that ‘Gutless Pig’ is on,” he said.
The former president is due to appear in a federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday to make his initial appearance on the charges.
Mr Trump told Politico on Saturday that he would continue his presidential campaign — even if he were convicted in the case — saying “I’ll never leave”.
He plans to make remarks on Tuesday night at his Bedminster, New York, golf club, his presidential campaign said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of pro-Trump supporters drove in a caravan from Miami to Palm Beach on Sunday to show their support for the former president, as has been done on several previous occasions since he left office.
Cars decked out with American flags and pro-Trump slogans on placards made the 130-kilometre trip, honking most of the way and meeting at a Palm Beach grocery store parking lot for a rally.
Of the 37 counts against Mr Trump, 31 of them relate to secret and top secret classified documents that he kept after leaving the White House in early 2021.
The indictment alleges that Mr Trump stored the documents in a haphazard manner at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, refused to give them back to the government, and tried to hide them from the FBI and even his own attorney after a grand jury issued him a subpoena demanding that he turn over all records bearing classified markings.
His attorney, Alina Habba — who is not representing him in the case — told Fox News Sunday that Mr Trump is innocent of the charges and plans to vigorously defend himself in the case.
In the past, Mr Barr has been a fierce defender of Mr Trump, going so far as to appoint his own special counsel to probe whether the FBI improperly opened an investigation into Mr Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign over possible ties to Russia based on flimsy evidence.
But towards the end of his tenure, Mr Barr’s views on Mr Trump soured after the former president tried to pressure the Justice Department to launch bogus voter fraud investigations, in a failed bid to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Not ‘personal documents’
Mr Trump has previously defended his retention of classified records, claiming without evidence he declassified them while in office — a defence that his allies have also repeated.
“I go on the president’s word that he said he did,” US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan told CNN on Sunday when asked if he had any evidence to back up Mr Trump’s claim.
In previous litigation related to the FBI’s search of his Florida home, Mr Trump’s lawyers repeatedly declined to make that argument in their court filings, and the indictment also contains evidence that Mr Trump knew he had retained records that remained highly classified.
“As president, I could have declassified it,” the indictment quoted Mr Trump as saying about one military document he allegedly displayed during a meeting at his New Jersey golf club in July of 2021.
“Now I can’t, you know, because this is still a secret.”
Mr Trump and his allies have also separately tried to argue that the records at the heart of the case are personal in nature and covered by the Presidential Records Act.
“He has every right to have classified documents that he declassifies under the Presidential Records Act,” Ms Habba told Fox News Sunday.
Mr Barr said the claim that the documents were Mr Trump’s personal records is “facially ridiculous”.
He said because the records referenced in the indictment are “official records” prepared by government intelligence agencies, they are considered property of the US government.
“Battle plans for an attack on another country or Defence Department documents about our capabilities are in no universe Donald J. Trump’s personal documents,” he said.
Reuters/ABC