William P. Barr, Donald Trump’s former attorney general, laid into the ex-president on Sunday for his alleged mishandling of classified documents that prompted a 37-count indictment by a grand jury in South Florida.
Once a close ally to Mr. Trump as the nation’s top law enforcement official, Mr. Barr became a critic of his former boss in the wake of Mr. Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and claims about widespread election fraud.
“If even half of it is true, then he’s toast,” Mr. Barr said on “Fox News Sunday.” “It’s a very detailed indictment, and it’s very damning. This idea of presenting Trump as a victim of a witch hunt is ridiculous.”
He went on to say that while Mr. Trump “has been a victim in the past” and that he has defended him, this time is different because of the severity of the allegations that the 2024 Republican presidential candidate kept sensitive materials unsecured at his resort and thwarted efforts by the government to recover them.
Mr. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he declassified the documents before leaving office. The indictment includes a claim that federal authorities have a recording in which Mr. Trump admitted he did not declassify them.
“He is not a victim here. He was totally wrong, that he had the right to have those documents. Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets that the country has,” Mr. Barr said. “He had no right to retain them, and he kept them in a way at Mar-a-Lago that anyone who really cares about national security, your stomach would churn at it.”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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