Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to turn himself in for arraignment in Miami on Tuesday and expected to plead not guilty to the 37 felony counts detailed in a Justice Department indictment unsealed Friday. Trump spent the weekend proclaiming his innocence and attacking the investigation, but most legal experts — including some who previously defended Trump — say this indictment is serious, substantial and a real threat to the former president.
It's important to hear Trump's legal defense, but "if even half" of the indictment's charges are "true, then he's toast," former Attorney General William Barr told Fox News Sunday. "It's a very detailed indictment and it's very, very damning. And this idea of presenting Trump as a victim here, a victim of a 'witch hunt,' is ridiculous."
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) echoed Barr's assessment on CBS's Face the Nation, saying "if even half of this stuff is true, he's in real trouble, and it is self-inflicted." Sununu is a Trump critic, but Barr was picked to be Trump's final attorney general in large part because he wrote a letter criticizing special counsel Robert Mueller's earlier investigation of Trump and his campaign's ties to Russia.
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Trump has been a victim of "phony claims" before, "and I've been at his side defending against them when he is a victim, but this is much different," Barr said on Sunday. "He's not a victim here. He was totally wrong that he had the right to have those documents. Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets that the country has," and Trump "kept them in a way at Mar-a-Lago that anyone who really cares about national security, their stomach would churn at it."
"Battle plans for an attack on another country or Defense Department documents about our capabilities are in no universe Donald J. Trump's personal documents," Barr said.
"I'm guessing that you're not going to join his legal team," host Shannon Bream deadpanned, and she asked Barr how he thought Trump would respond to his legal analysis. "Well, he's been angry with me for a while," Barr said. "I defend the president on 'Russiagate,' I stood up and called out Alvin Bragg's politicized hit job," but "this particular episode" is different.
Trump did respond on his Truth Social account, and he still appears to be angry with Barr. "Virtually everyone is saying that the Indictment is about Election Interference & should not have been brought," Trump claimed, falsely, "except Bill Barr, a 'disgruntled former employee' & lazy Attorney General who was weak & totally ineffective. ... He knows the Indictment is Bull…. Turn off FoxNews when that 'Gutless Pig' is on!"
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