Former Attorney General Bill Barr believes it wouldn’t be a credible defense for Donald Trump in the ongoing Jan. 6 case to claim that he was merely following the advice of unspecified co-conspirators mentioned in the indictment.
Barr told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday that “It would not come out very well for him” if Trump took the stand on that defense, Politico reported.
“I think he’d be subject to very skilled cross-examination, and I doubt he remembers all the different versions of events he has given over the last few years.”
Trump Knew He Lost 2020 Election To Biden, Says Former AG Barr: ‘It Would Not Come Out Very Well For Him’ Barr said that all advisers surrounding Trump had told him that the election “was not stolen by fraud.”
According to Barr, Trump was aware that he had lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, despite his efforts to challenge and overturn its results.
“At first I wasn’t sure, but I have come to believe that he knew well that he had lost the election,” Barr said.
“The government has assumed the burden of proving that. The government in their indictment takes the position that he had actual knowledge that he had lost the election and the election wasn’t stolen through fraud. And they’re going to have to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Why It Matters: Barr resigned as Trump’s attorney general weeks after the election in December 2020
He was a former Trump ally and has recently turned negative towards the ex-president, stating that the former U.S. leader cannot win the next election and is a “weak candidate.”
However, he has previously said he would still vote for Trump if he became the Republican candidate.
He also warned Republicans to “be careful” of getting caught in former President “carnage” after the property manager of his Mar-a-Lago resort was added to the classified documents case last week.
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