Former Attorney General Bill Barr criticized Attorney Garland Merrick Garland’s handling of the federal investigation into Hunter Biden, saying it hurts the federal indictment against former President Trump.
“Nobody should be madder than the people that are working on the Jan. 6 case for the inept way it appears the Hunter Biden case was handled,” Barr said in a Fox News interview Friday.
Hunter Biden signed a plea agreement over a Justice Department investigation into tax crimes and gun charges. Republicans in Congress have also investigated Biden over allegations he used the influence of his father in business deals.
Barr said the Hunter Biden investigation’s shaky conclusion could raise questions about other investigations and reflect poorly on Garland, especially given the political nature of the case.
“An attorney general can not walk away from this. … These ultimately are his decisions. He has to own the decisions,” Barr said.
Barr also said he would not have charged Trump for the election crimes, referring to the stark political divide resulting from any charge related to the legitimacy of the 2020 election.
“I have no problem with investigating what happened on January 6, I think that was the right thing to do … but I’m not sure I would have pulled the trigger at the end of the day on this case,” he said.
Barr served as attorney general during the H.W. Bush and Trump administrations. He has been a fierce Trump critic since leaving the administration in 2020.