Bill Barr Mocks Mark Levin’s ‘Ridiculous’ Defense Against Trump Charges: ‘It’s a Sideshow!’
Former Attorney General Bill Barr’s ridicule of Mark Levin, and his defense of former President Donald Trump, may not have been direct, but it was no less damning to the Fox News host and all other Trump surrogates defending the criminal indictment over his handling of classified documents.
Barr made headlines this weekend when he called Trump “toast” after an unsealed indictment alleged that the former president violated the Espionage Act, purposely misled the government, and obstructed justice to retrieve classified documents. Barr appeared on Special Report, and anchor Bret Baier opened the segment with Levin defending Trump from the previous evening on Hannity.
“It’s called the Presidential Records Act because he is the executive branch,” Levin was seen saying in his signature high-pitched caterwaul. “He’s the executive branch. So he doesn’t have to rely on some subordinate. Here are the regulations. This is the way you do it, Mr. President. His power comes from the Constitution. He is a third branch of government. Him. He alone. Everything else flows from him!”
“You listen to Mark there, and he is saying that these Presidential Records Act covers what they’re seeing here,” Baier noted. “How do you see that?”
Barr readily dismissed the defense of this being a document dispute over custody of documents, adding, “I think the arguments are farcical and will be shown as such.”
He then went deep:
What did he do? He engaged in outrageous act of obstruction and deception that obstructed that subpoena. And that is wrong. That’s a law. I mean, that’s a violation of law. That’s a serious problem for him. What he did was, according to the indictment, he took a lot of the boxes away, hid them from his lawyer, told his lawyer to go and search what remained, and then cause that lawyer to file a statement to the court saying that there had been a complete search. And if anyone did that, that would be obstruction. So that is why I think the Justice Department pulled the trigger, and that’s the central part of this case. So talking about whether he had the right to have the documents or not. Well, it’s it’s ridiculous. It’s a sideshow! You cannot defend what he did with that subpoena using.
Baeir asked if Barr if he believed prosecutors’ use of The Espionage Act is justified in these charges, to which Barr defended decisions apparently made by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
That was a that is a sound charge that is right. He did not have the right to keep those documents and he jerk the government in Iran for a year. Put yourself in the government. Suspicion. You don’t know what he has. He can have it and you don’t know what’s at risk. They needed to see that stuff. What are they to do? But I think that was a legitimate charge. But I don’t think they would have charged it. Have they given the documents back? It was it was the obstruction of the subpoena that I think led the department to pull the trigger. And I’ve said that from the beginning. If there was strong evidence of his personal involvement in deception, he would be prosecuted.
Baier followed by showing Barr a clip of the former president insulting his former attorney general, saying:
I think he’s a coward who didn’t do his job. He was desperately afraid of being impeached. Remember when the Democrats were saying we’re going to impeach Bill Barr, There was no reason to impeach him, but they were going to impeach Bill Barr. We had unbelievable people, as you know, in the administration. But you also had some that we got wrong. And Bill Barr was a mistake.
When asked for a reaction, Barr referenced a previous comment in which Trump called him a “gutless pig” and said, “Well, he said he said I was a gutless lowlife. And clearly, I have a gut so that will shed light on his veracity there. I just you know, this is the usual, you know.”
Watch above via Fox News.
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