Former President Donald Trump on Monday derided formerly Attorney General Bill Barr as “slovenly and pathetic” after the onetime close ally said the feds have strong evidence in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation.
Attacking Barr as a “coward,” Trump upped the ante in the mushrooming feud hours after the nation’s former top law enforcement official warned the documents probe appears to be a very potent case.
“While he correctly puts down the (Manhattan) case, he plays up the equally ridiculous BOXES HOAX, where Biden should have the problem, not me,” Trump said, repeating his claim that President Joe Biden should face charges for his own classified documents investigation.
Barr on Sunday said he believes federal special counsel Jack Smith has built a strong case against Trump, particularly for obstructing justice after he defied a subpoena to return the documents.
He said Trump “had no claim” to the documents and was “jerking the government around.”
“The government is investigating the extent to which games were played and there was obstruction in keeping documents from them,” Barr said on ABC’s This Week. “And I think that’s a serious potential case. I think they probably have some very good evidence there.”
Barr drew a sharp distinction between the documents case and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment of Trump last week on charges related to hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, which Barr called “unjust.”
Trump angrily blasted Barr for distinguishing between the two cases, which the former president lumps together as part of one big partisan witch hunt aimed at him.
“Barr is a weak & angry (Republican in name only)!” Trump added.
Trump also repeated a version of his Easter Sunday message suggesting that Biden is leading America into “WORLD WAR III,” presumably by standing up to defend Ukraine against the Russian invasion.
Republican voters and even rival GOP presidential candidates have rallied behind Trump after his indictment in the Manhattan case, even as American voters as a whole tell pollsters they believe Trump intentionally broke the law.
Trump has seen his standing rise among his supporters, although it is unclear whether the same political dynamic would play out if he is also indicted in one or more of the other far more serious criminal investigations that he faces.
Barr also pushed back against Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election. He testified to the congressional Jan. 6 committee, telling the panel that he informed his then-boss that myriad election fraud claims were baseless “bull----.”
Trump took thousands of government documents, including hundreds of classified and top secret ones, to his Florida resort home when he left the White House in 2021.
He resisted government efforts to get the documents back and failed to return many of them when prosecutors obtained a subpoena.
A search of his Mar-a-Lago home turned up more than 100 documents in a storage room and his personal office.
Prosecutors also reportedly have evidence that Trump ordered some of the documents moved and even personally rummaged through them after receiving the subpoena, actions that could amount to obstruction.
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