Former Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday that he believes the trial involving former President Donald Trump is an “abomination” and politicized.
When asked by a Fox News anchor about the trial, which started this week in New York City, Mr. Barr said that the case is “obviously political” and an “abomination,” noting that charges were brought years later in the case.
President Trump faces more than 30 counts of falsifying business records for alleged hush-money payments that were made to bury stories during the 2016 election through his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. The former president has pleaded not guilty and denied a number of the claims in the case, including one accusing him of engaging in a mid-2000s affair with an adult actress.
“It’s obviously political, seven years after he pays hush money to try and come up with this case,” Mr. Barr said.
Also in the interview, Mr. Barr said that he would vote for President Trump despite his prior criticism against the former commander-in-chief and former boss.
He also said: “I’ve said all along given two bad choices, I think it’s my duty to pick the person I think would do the least harm to the country and in my mind that’s—I will vote the Republican ticket. I will support the Republican ticket.”
Barring anything unforeseen, President Trump is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee after his only remaining GOP challenger, Nikki Haley, dropped out of the race last month after the Super Tuesday contests.
“I think the real danger to the country, the real danger to democracy, as I say, is the progressive agenda and I’ve said Trump may be playing Russian roulette, but continuation of the Biden administration is national suicide in my opinion,” said Mr. Barr.
Mr. Barr’s comments on Wednesday in spite of past criticism of President Trump, including the former president’s claims about fraud during that election. Mr. Barr has faced conservative criticism for what has been perceived as his failure to properly investigate allegations of election fraud after the 2020 election while he was attorney general.
Mr. Barr, a lifelong Republican, was the U.S. attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush and was again tapped to be the attorney general by President Trump in 2019 and 2020. He left the administration in December 2020 after he publicly disputed certain claims about election fraud during the 2020 contest.
Later, he cooperated with the House Jan. 6 subcommittee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, breach at the U.S. Capitol. He also has defended special counsel Jack Smith’s cases against the former president as legitimate.
On Monday and Tuesday, President Trump had to remain in a Manhattan courtroom as the jury selection process plays out. So far, seven jurors have been selected for the trial, which is slated to last at least six weeks, while there are no trial dates scheduled for Wednesdays.
Meanwhile, the judge told the former president that he will have to remain in the court throughout the trial or face “an arrest.” The former president’s lawyers on multiple occasions attempted to get the judge dismissed but to no avail.
At one point Monday, his lawyers asked Judge Juan Merchan to grant him one day away from court to watch his son Barron’s graduation from high school in the coming weeks. The judge did not issue a ruling on the matter but said he would revisit it at a later date, drawing the ire of President Trump.
“Seems very unfair, doesn’t it? But this whole event is unfair. Every one of the many Fake Cases that are perpetuated by the White House in order to help the Worst President in History, by far, get Re-Elected, are UNJUST SCAMS,” he added.
Judge Merchan also denied a Trump request to miss a court date to attend a U.S. Supreme Court hearing on a separate case involving his arguments that he should be considered immune from prosecution.
