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- Bill Barr said Trump shouldn't get avoid trials simply because he's running for president.
- Trump and his defenders have pointed out how proposed trial dates conflict with the 2024 GOP nomination schedule.
- While Barr thinks Trump could be convicted in some cases, he doesn't want Trump to face prison time.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr on Thursday practically scoffed at former President Donald Trump's argument that it's unfair for him to be in court when he should be campaigning for president.
"To some degree, they might accommodate a few days here and there, but I don't think that should govern the schedule for pursuing these cases," Barr told Fox News host Neil Cavuto.
Barr pointed out that the federal investigations into Trump were ongoing before he announced his candidacy. Trump and his defenders have pointed out that some of his cases would run right up against the political calendar. Special counsel Jack Smith wants to take his January 6-related case to trial in January, right before the Iowa Republican caucuses. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis wants to Trump be tried in Georgia right before Super Tuesday.
"You don't get immunity for two years in a runup to the election just saying, 'hey, I'm a candidate you can't try me.' These investigations have been going on for a while, everyone knew about them before he even announced his candidacy."
Barr has been sharply critical of the former president since the end of the Trump administration. The House January 6 committee uncovered evidence that then-President Trump threw his lunch against the wall in response to Barr telling the Associated Press that the Justice Department had no uncovered evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Barr resigned as attorney general weeks later.
Even though he has been critical of Trump, Barr has been outspoken in his attacks on some prosecutions of the former president. Barr told Cavuto that the New York case against Trump related to alleged hush money payments before the 2016 election is a "joke." The former attorney general also has concerns about Willis' case against Trump and 18 other co-defendants.
"I'm not happy with the Georgia case, I think it's much too sweeping, much too broad, excessive case that's gonna make it look like people are piling on and being excessive to Trump and feed the narrative that he is being victimized," Barr said.
On the other hand, Barr said Smith has stronger cases over Trump's alleged mishandling of classified information and his refusal to turn it over. Smith has also charged just Trump for his actions to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
"At the end of the day, at the core of this thing, he engaged, in the case of the documents, in outrageous behavior where anyone would be prosecuted," Barr said. "I don't know of any attorney general who would walk away from it."
As for the post-2020 case, Barr said it was clear Trump "crossed the line" by pushing fake electors while also pressuring then-Vice President Mike Pence to use the fake electors as a gambit to overturn the election results.
"It was a calculated and deceitful plan to remain in office by nullifying and negating certified legal votes," Barr said.
Barr said it is likely that Trump is convicted of some of the 91 criminal counts he currently faces across his four cases. Despite that prediction, the former attorney general doesn't think the former president should go to prison.
"If I attorney general and we were prosecuting, for example, on the documents case — which I think is a very righteous case — I wouldn't want to see a former president in jail," Barr said. "I think a very substantial penalty would serve the public interest, but putting him in jail has too many collateral bad impacts on the country."