Former Attorney General Bill Barr called Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush-money case against former President Donald Trump an “abomination” on Wednesday.
Additionally, Barr revealed, despite past differences and concerns about a Trump second term, that he plans to vote for the presumptive GOP nominee in November.
Regarding Bragg’s charges against Trump, Barr told Fox News, “I’ve said from the beginning this case is an abomination. You know it’s obviously political, seven years after he pays hush money, to try to come up with this case.”
“It’s not only far-fetched, they’re trying to predicate it on a federal crime, which wasn’t prosecuted. And they’re wrong about it. This was not a campaign contribution. They’re just wrong on the law,” the former Trump AG added.
The apparent theory of Bragg’s case is that then-Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen made an in-kind contribution to the Trump presidential campaign in excess of federal limits.
According to Bragg, Cohen paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Nondisclosure agreements are very common and generally legal. Daniels has alleged that she and Trump had a sexual encounter in 2006.
The $130,000 didn’t go to, nor did the alleged reimbursement come from, Trump’s presidential campaign. Cohen was reimbursed by the Trump Organization in early 2017, according to Bragg’s indictment.
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Further, Trump could have had other reasons he didn’t want Daniels’ allegation made public, besides whatever impact it may have had on his candidacy.
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Prior to Bragg’s indictment, federal prosecutors and the Federal Election Commission had already reviewed the payments to Daniels and declined to charge Trump.
Barr observed that Bragg’s case against Trump is part of a larger problem.
“To me, this shows the real threat to liberty, the real threat to our system are the excesses of the progressive left. They’re perverting the system of justice and that’s where the danger lies: the corruption and the subversion of our institutions by the left,” he said.
Asked whether he would support Trump for president, Barr responded, “Well, I’ve said all along, given two bad choices, I think it’s my duty to pick the person I think would do the least harm to the country, and in my mind, I will vote the Republican ticket. I will support the Republican ticket.”
“I think the real danger to our country, the real danger to democracy is … the progressive agenda,” he emphasized.
With Trump, the United States “may be playing Russian roulette, but continuation of the Biden administration is national suicide,” Barr said.
Several legal experts have called Bragg’s case against Trump weak.
George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley described it as a “Frankenstein case” based on resurrected alleged misdemeanor business record violations.
“So many of us are just amazed to watch this actually walk into court, because it’s not a recognizable crime that any of us have seen,” he said.
Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy argued in a Monday piece for National Review, “Trump’s best defense … is not necessarily to establish that he is not guilty; rather, it is to establish that, if he is guilty of anything, it is merely of the misdemeanor. If the jury so finds, I believe the case would have to be thrown out.”
