Bill Barr tears into Donald Trump and says he will be indicted over Mar-a-Lago documents

Former Attorney General Bill Barr said the investigation of classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate could pose a serious threat to Donald Trump.

In October, the Justice Department began investigating whether the former president violated three federal statutes when he brought White House materials back to Mar-A-Lago instead of turning them over to the National Archives as required.

Barr – who was once a loyal defender of Trump – said the former president was “playing games” with federal investigators and claimed prosecutors had “very good evidence” against him.

“He had no claim to those documents, especially the secret documents. It was from the government,” Barr said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “I think he was fooling the government.”

‘The government is investigating to what extent games were played and the documents were obstructed. I think that’s a serious potential case, I think they probably have very good evidence there,” Barr continued.

It even comes as Barr dismissed charges against Trump over his alleged involvement in the 2016 ‘hush money’ scandal

It even comes as Barr last week dismissed charges against Trump over his alleged involvement in the 2016 “hush money” scandal as an “abomination” and “the epitome of the prosecutor’s abuse of power” on Fox News.

Trump made history as the first ex-president in U.S. history to be indicted on 34 counts of first-degree falsification of corporate records.

Barr argued that the legal theory behind the charges was “pathetically weak” and that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office was “going after the man, not a crime.”

“Obviously we don’t have the indictment, so there’s a little bit of speculation involved, but based on the news reports, if they’re accurate, this is an abomination,” Barr said on Fox News.

“It is the epitome of the abuse of the prosecution’s power to bring a case that would not be brought against anyone else. They go after the man, no crime. And the legal theory is, frankly, sadly weak,” he suggested.

“The legal theory is pathetically weak. The case is held together by chicken wire and paperclips and rubber bands. It’s a shitty thing. And it’s an embarrassing episode in our history where this local prosecutor is trying to influence the political process by bringing this case,” Barr railed.

He dug into the legal arguments likely to be made, noting how the case likely revolved around how Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, recorded the fees paid to him from Trump as “statutory payment.”

Barr explained how the statute requires such misclassification of funds to be done with intent to defraud, which may not be the case in this situation.

The claim is that [recording the Cohen reimbursements as legal payments] is false and therefore initially violated a misdemeanor statute against false documents,” Barr said.

He added on Sunday’s ABC broadcast, “If it was fraud, it was committed during fraud. And I don’t see anywhere exactly what the fraud was,” Barr said. “These were his own business documents. He paid himself the hush money and the business documents were his own business. He owns the company.’

However, he argued that the Mar-a-Lago case was a greater potential tool in the former president’s downfall.

The Mar-a-Lago case began when Trump voluntarily turned over 15 boxes of documents to the National Archives in January and the DOJ opened an investigation in February after discovering classified material had been returned to Mar-A-Lago.

They finally served a subpoena for additional material in June, then searched Mar-A-Lago in August when it emerged that Trump’s lawyers had not actually turned over all of the documents.

Some of the secret documents had the most classified names, and the Washington Post reported that documents may contain details of other countries’ nuclear capabilities.

The administration has alleged in lawsuits that there is evidence that Trump and his team “hid and removed” documents from a Mar-A-Lago storage facility that could impede the investigation, and has accused Trump of placing classified material in unauthorized locations on to hit .

The DOJ is investigating whether Trump violated three federal statutes, including the Espionage Act, which broadly addresses mishandling of government and national security records and carries potential penalties of fines or maximum prison terms between three and 20 years depending on the status.

Former AG Bill Barr tells Jon Karl the case against former Pres. Trump wants to “get in the middle of the Republican primary process and turn it into a circus.” “They want him to be the nominee because he’s the weakest of the Republican candidates.”

The former attorney general also called Trump the weakest of the Republican candidates and said he would ultimately lose to Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

“I think ultimately the savvy Democratic strategists know [the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office probe] is going to help Trump, and they want him to be the nominee because he’s the weakest of the Republican candidates, the most likely to lose to Biden again,” Barr said on Sunday.

“I don’t think anything is going to happen until a nomination is made and maybe even until the election, the 2024 election,” Barr said when asked about the likelihood of Trump being convicted and sent to prison. “This stuff is going to drag on ’24, and it’s going to hinder and disrupt the entire Republican primary process.”