Former Attorney General Bill Barr has dismissed former President Donald Trump’s claims that the special counsel’s ongoing investigation into the classified docs is politically motivated, saying he believes the public will eventually understand the former President’s guilt.
In an interview on CBS, Barr said that “over time,” people will realize that the Department of Justice’s investigation is not a “witch hunt.”
Instead, Barr insisted that the DOJ was approaching the situation “delicately” with “deference” to the former President.
He added that the investigation wouldn’t have occurred if Trump had handed over the documents, “But he jerked them around for a year and a half.”
Special counsel Jack Smith is leading the investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents, some of which were found during an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago residence, following Trump repeatedly refusing to turn over documents to federal authorities after leaving the White House.
Trump has repeatedly called the investigation into his conduct a “witch hunt” and posted angry social media posts against federal investigators on Tuesday (June 6), a day after Trump’s lawyers were seen meeting with Smith and other DOJ officials.
Smith is also probing Trump’s efforts to stay in power beyond the 2020 election.
In a Truth Social post, Trump blamed “The Marxists and Fascists in the DOJ & FBI” are pursuing him “at a level and speed never seen before in our Country,” adding he “did nothing wrong.”
Barr explained that Monday’s meeting between Trump’s attorneys and the DOJ was “probably held to complain about some aspects of the Special Counsel’s work,” suggesting that an indictment was “near.”
