Bill Barr: DOJ documents probe remains ‘most threatening’ case against Trump

Former Attorney General Bill Barr says that the federal investigation into White House material kept at Mar-a-Lago is the “most threatening” of all the criminal cases against former President Trump.

“The real question isn’t whether he kept the documents at Mar-a-Lago, but that when this was raised with him and he was asked to return the documents as the government’s property, that games were played for quite a long time,” Barr said on “CNN Primetime” Thursday night. “I think that exposes him.”

Trump has been under investigation in the documents case since last year, when federal investigators conducted a search of the south Florida property, seizing boxes of documents that Trump did not provide when asked. 

Barr said that Trump may face two criminal charges: over both having the documents themselves and refusing to hand them over when demanded to do so.

“In this case, the underlying offense is having these documents, which he shouldn’t have had, and he was subpoenaed,” he said. “If he doesn’t provide them and hides them from the government, there’s both an underlying offense and the offense of obstruction.”

“The thing that raises this and makes it a more significant threat is the obstruction aspect of it,” Barr added. “Just based on the government’s conduct, I suspect they have some evidence that they would consider to be strong evidence of obstruction.”

Since Trump was found to be in possession of potentially hundreds of classified documents, President Biden and former Vice President Pence have also come under fire for holding a small number of classified documents in their offices or homes.

Special counsel Jack Smith is handling the Trump documents case, as well as a second investigation into Trump’s involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump is also under investigation in Georgia over his efforts to subvert the 2020 election there, and earlier this month he pleaded not guilty in New York to charges related to 2016 hush money payments made to adult film performer Stormy Daniels.

The New York indictment made Trump the first current or former U.S. president to be arrested.

Barr has been openly critical of Trump since leaving his administration, even saying last week that Trump is the “most likely” GOP candidate to lose to Biden in a hypothetical 2024 presidential election.