Trump hits Bill Barr for getting ‘played’ by Dems after his deposition shown at TV hearing

Former President Donald Trump on Friday said his former Attorney General William Barr was “weak and frightened” and manipulated by Democrats.

The blistering rebuke was delivered after the House Jan. 6 committee’s prime-time TV hearing Thursday featured Mr. Barr’s videotaped deposition to the committee in which he condemned Mr. Trump’s stolen-election claims, saying he quit the administration in 2020 because of it.

“Bill Barr was a weak and frightened Attorney General who was always being ’played’ and threatened by the Democrats and was scared stiff of being Impeached,” Mr. Trump fumed on his Truth Social social media site.

“How do you not get impeached? Do nothing, or say nothing, especially about the obviously RIGGED & STOLEN Election or, to put it another way, THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY! The Democrats hit pay dirt with Barr, he was stupid, ridiculously said there was no problem with the Election, & they left him alone. It worked for him, but not for our Country!” he wrote.

At the hearing, in which the Democrat-led panel blamed Mr. Trump for organizing a “coup,” the video of Mr. Barr was played to show Mr. Trump knew his election fraud claims were false.

“I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff. I didn’t want to be a part of it and that’s one of the reasons that went into me deciding to leave when I did,” Mr. Barr said in a videotaped deposition.

He said that in at least three meetings, he told Mr. Trump that there was no evidence of massive fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

The committee also played a clip from a videotaped deposition by Mr. Trump’s daughter, White House adviser Ivanka Trump. She described her reaction to Mr. Barr’s assessment that there was no widespread election fraud.

“It affected my perspective. I respect Attorney General Barr so I accepted what he was saying,” Ms. Trump said in the video clip.

On the social media site, Mr. Trump also dismissed as a political hit job the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

He said the committee cherry-picked video and testimony to smear him at the made-for-TV hearing.

“So the Unselect Committee of political HACKS refuses to play any of the many positive witnesses and statements, refuses to talk of the Election Fraud and Irregularities that took place on a massive scale, and decided to use a documentary maker from Fake News ABC to spin only negative footage. Our Country is in such trouble!” Mr. Trump wrote.

• Joseph Clark contributed to this story.