Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump applauds as he attends the North Carolina Republican Party convention in Greensboro, North Carolina, US on June 10, 2023.
Megan Varner | Reuters
After a 37-count criminal perfect against Donald Trump opened on Friday, Trump’s former Attorney General Bill Barr said trouble lies ahead for the 2024 Republican presidential hopeful.
“If even half of this is true, he’s toast,” Barr told “Fox News Sunday.” “It’s a very detailed accusation, and it’s very, very damning. And this idea of presenting Trump as a victim here, a victim of a witch, is ridiculous.”
The indictment revealed allegations that the former president knowingly kept hundreds of classified government records at his Florida home and conspired to prevent their return to US officials.
The billing documentmade public a day after a grand jury in US District Court in Miami voted to indict Trump, whose records contained information about US and foreign countries’ defense and weapons capabilities, US nuclear programs, and “potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack.”
Trump stores these classified materials in cardboard boxes in a ballroom, bathroom, shower, and office space, along with his bedroom and storage room at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida., according to accusation.
Barr said the way Trump stores documents at Mar-a-Lago is enough to upset anyone who cares about national security.
“He’s not a victim here,” Barr said. “He is completely wrong that he has the right to have those documents. Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets of the country.”
Many Republicans, including presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, rallied around Trump after the indictment.
Ramaswamy said he would pardon Trump if elected, even before the details of the indictment were released. He told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that after reading the indictment, he was “even more convinced that forgiveness is the right answer.”
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan said Sunday that the indictment is “so political.” The Ohio Republican claimed that Trump has declared the materials and can handle them as he pleases. CNN’s Dana Bash repeatedly tried to press Jordan for evidence that Trump had declassified the documents.
“I’m going to go at the president’s word, and he said he did,” Jordan said.
But Democratic officials were less forgiving, and Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware on Sunday that “no man is above the law.”
“Former President Trump has nobody to blame but himself for being federally, criminally indicted,” he told ABC’s “This Week.”
