On Tuesday, former Trump administration Attorney General Bill Barr told Fox News he disagreed with a federal judge's ruling to appoint a special master to review records the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized in August from his former boss' Florida home turned resort.
Mar-a-Lago—former Republican President Donald Trump's current residence of record—was searched by the FBI in conjunction with a complaint filed with the Department of Justice (DoJ) by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
In responce, Trump’s lawyers filed a motion asking for a special master to examine all documents seized by the FBI. The request came well after the documents were reviewed and inventoried.
You can hear Barr's view on the request and ruling below:
\u201cBill Barr on Fox News on Judge Cannon's special master ruling: "The opinion I think was wrong, and I think the government should appeal it."\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1662493343
Barr said:
"The opinion, I think, was wrong, and I think the government should appeal it."
"It's deeply flawed in a number of ways."
Trump’s former Attorney General continued:
"I don't think the appointment of a special master is going to hold up, but even if it does, I don't see it fundamentally changing the trajectory."
"I think the fundamental dynamics of the case are set."
"Which is the government has very strong evidence of what it really needs to determine whether charges are appropriate, which is government tax documents were taken, classified information was taken and not handled appropriately."
"And they are looking into and there's some evidence to suggest that they were deceived."
Barr added:
"And none of that really relates to the content of documents."
"It relates to the fact that there were documents there and the fact that they were classified and the fact that they were subpoenaed and never delivered."
"But they don't have to show the content, you know, the specific advice given in a memo, for example, in order to prevail in this case."
"So I think it's not really going to change the decision."
While many concurred with Barr's take...
\u201c@indicteddonald @atrupar \ud83c\udfaf\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1662493343
\u201c@JEandJL @atrupar Yes, democracy is in danger because Trump will have a representative making sure the FBI didn\u2019t take items they shouldn\u2019t have. I mean, we should trust the FBI because they are so impartial. \ud83e\udd21\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1662493343
\u201c@PomWhisperer @atrupar \ud83d\ude02\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1662493343
\u201c@dgursom @atrupar The Florida third district court of appeal will likely overturn or at least provide a preliminary injunction on appeal.\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1662493343
\u201c@sueplick @atrupar @costareports Same, always an ulterior motive.\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1662493343
\u201c@scotogogo @atrupar Which ones seem sensible to you? \ud83e\udd21\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1662493343
...they weren't ready to forget his enabling of Trump while he was AG.
\u201c@PappyRed47 @atrupar He should have done the right thing 3+ years ago we wouldn\u2019t be in this dam mess yet\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1662493343
\u201c@Chris40313997 @JEandJL @atrupar So we should trust Trump over the FBI...law enforcement? How did we get here? The FBI is bad and the folks trying to get around the law are good...lol?\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1662493343
\u201c@Geosensa @atrupar They're rotten, every last one of them. They've never done an honest or decent day's work in their lives.\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1662493343
\u201c@phabfor @atrupar He's trying to clean up his deplorable reputation\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1662493343
\u201c@JSKatsky @atrupar I'd like to think it's the relief of no longer having to work for the dark side...but I'm an optimist.\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1662493343
Barr was the subject of heavy criticism while serving as Trump's Attorney General from 2019 until his resignation at the end of 2020.
The DoJ under Barr was accused of being complicit in unethical and potentially illegal activities by Trump and members of his administration and his family.
AG Barr's resignation came after Trump's loss of the popular and electoral vote to Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Investigations into the January 6 Capitol riot found Trump was involved in discussions with members of Congress, his administration and right-wing organization leaders about ways to overturn Trump's election loss in December of 2020.
The weeks leading up to Barr's resignation were filled with public clashes between Trump and his AG. Many revolved around Barr's refusal to perpetuate or support Trump's Big Lie about his 2020 election loss.
Barr and his DoJ made several statements that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud nor anything to support Trump being the rightful winner.
