Former Attorney General William Barr told the House Jan. 6 committee that Mr. Trump’s claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen was the reason he quit the administration.
“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.
The video was shown during the committee’s prime-time hearing Thursday. The committee is showcasing evidence that the committee calls the “coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and prevent the transfer of power.”
Mr. Barr told the committee “you can’t live in a world where the incumbent administration stays in power based on its view, not supported by specific evidence, that there was fraud in the election.”
He said that in at least three meetings, he told Mr. Trump that there was no evidence of massive fraud in the election.
The committee also played a video of Mr. Trump’s daughter, White House adviser Ivanka Trump, describing 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.
Mr. Barr publicly dismissed Mr. Trump’s claims about the election before departing the administration in December 2020.
Thursday’s hearing marks the start of a month of public hearings by the committee that are expected to reveal new information and testimony from Trump administration officials and other witnesses.
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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