William P. Barr, who served as attorney general under President Donald J. Trump, criticized his former boss on Sunday for “reckless conduct” that led to Trump’s indictment on charges of mishandling classified documents, saying the case it was “totally up to him”. his own creation.”
Mr. Barr, in an interview with CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” reviewed the seriousness of the charges against Mr. Trump. He described the former president’s actions, laid out in a 49-page indictment, as damaging not only the country, but also the Republican Party and the conservative movement led by Trump.
Barr also attacked Trump’s character in extraordinary language, describing him as “a consummate narcissist” and a “fundamentally flawed person” who would always put his own ego above all else. He added that he believed Trump had lied to the Justice Department about the classified documents he had in his possession.
“He’s like a defiant 9-year-old who’s always pushing his glass to the edge of the table, daring his parents not to stop him from doing it,” Barr said, adding that “our country can’t be a therapy session. for a man with problems like this.
Trump, who is charged with illegally withholding classified documents and obstructing efforts to recover them after leaving office, is the first former president to be charged with federal crimes. He pleaded not guilty last week.
Barr has become a vocal critic of the former president, but was once a staunch defender, including during the special counsel’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s 2016 ties to Russia, which Barr sought to discredit.
Trump “has been the victim of unjust witch hunts in the past,” Barr said Sunday. But, he insisted, the charges in the documents case were very different.
“This was an entirely self-made case,” Barr said. “He had no right to those documents. The government tried for a year, quietly and respectfully, to get them back, which was essential for them to do, and it shook them. And I had no legal basis to keep them.”
