Trump’s ‘reckless’ behavior led to special counsel’s probes

Former Attorney General Bill Barr has said former President Donald Trump’s own “reckless” behavior has led to federal investigations into his retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. 

“He’s frequently his own worst enemy and he digs himself holes,” Barr said in an interview with CNN that aired Thursday evening.

“And he does some things that are reckless that are clearly going to give rise to investigations and look into them. And that included both the documents in Mar-a-Lago and the Jan. 6 episode,” he added.

Of the two investigations overseen by special counsel Jack Smith, Barr said the classified document probe presents a “high risk” for an indictment of the 76-year-old former president. 

“[B]ased on the government’s conduct here, I suspect that they have some evidence of — that they would consider to be strong evidence of obstruction. And that’s why I feel that this is probably the most threatening case,” said Barr, who served as the second attorney general in the Trump administration. 

Barr added that the FBI search of Trump’s Florida resort last August prompted allies of the former president to question why the government didn’t negotiate with him about the files or subpoena him beforehand.

“And it turns out, as I suggested, that they jawboned him for a year-and-a-half,” Barr told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins. “They did subpoena him. And I think the real question there is not whether he kept the documents and had them in Mar-a-Lago, so much as once this was raised with him, and it was clear that he was being asked to return the documents as the government’s property, that games were played for quite a long time.”

When asked by Collins if Trump could be charged with obstruction of justice, Barr answered: “I think, in this case, the underlying offense was his having these documents, which he shouldn’t have had, and he was subpoenaed.” 

The former AG also said he suspects that prosecutors have what “they would consider to be strong evidence of obstruction. And that’s why I feel that this is probably the most threatening case.”

Barr added the ruling last month by a federal judge that Trump cannot use attorney-client privilege to prevent his lawyer Evan Corcoran from answering questions about the documents was a game-changer for the special counsel. 

“They did puncture the attorney-client privilege …  establishing before the judge the crime-fraud exception, which was to say there was probable cause that this — there was evidence of a crime here,” he said. 

“So, that and just the things I read in the newspaper make me feel that there’s probably a likelihood that they have people — people who have cooperated with the government and may be able to establish that he well knew he had not delivered all the documents back to the government,” Barr said. 

Trump blasted Barr on Truth Social Friday as a “Slovenly, Lethargic Coward … who didn’t have the ‘guts’ to fight election fraud, & more, because he was afraid he was going to be impeached by the Radical Left Lunatics.”

“Barr is a Globalist RINO spokesman for Fox & the WSJ,” the former president added. “He is a Stone Cold LOSER!”