Former US Attorney General Bill Barr said investigators may have evidence that former President Donald Trump tried to prevent authorities from obtaining classified documents after he left the White House.
Barr said the case against Trump is about how long it took the government to recover the documents, stressing that “Trump had no reason or argument to demand these documents, especially classified documents that should be in the government’s possession.”
He added: “The government is investigating the obstacles that were used to not turn over the documents … and I think they probably have very strong evidence,” given that “of all the legal problems that Trump has faced, investigating classified documents is of greatest concern.
Barr expressed confidence that “Trump would have been indicted in this case before classified documents were found in the homes of President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence,” noting that he still believes that “there is a very large the likelihood of that happening, and I think it depends on how confidential the documents are, as well as what evidence they have of impediments from Trump, and whether he forced people to lie or gave misleading information to be passed on to the government.
Notably, the US authorities began to discover the absence of certain documents when the National Archives began contacting his office, convinced that he was not in possession of some well-known records from his presidency, such as correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The former president’s team provided the government with some material, including classified documents, but archivists did not find that the president’s team was fully cooperative.
This led to an FBI intervention that led to a raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence last August and the discovery of more than 100 additional documents.
Source: Hill