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Barr says there’s no legitimate reason for Trump to have taken classified documents Return to menu William P. Barr served as attorney general in the T

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HR King
May 29, 2001
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Former attorney general William P. Barr, who served under Donald Trump, said Friday that there is no legitimate reason for the former president to have taken boxes of declassified documents to his Mar-a-Lago home.
In what amounts to his strongest condemnation yet of Trump’s actions in the Justice Department’s investigation of the classified documents, Barr said he couldn’t think “of a legitimate reason why” the documents “could have been take out of the government if they’re classified.”
“I am frankly skeptical of this claim that [Trump] declassified everything,” Barr said. “I think it’s highly improbable.
“If, in fact, he sort of stood over scores of boxes, not really knowing what was in them, and said, ‘I hereby declassify everything in here,’ that would be such an abuse,” the former head of the Justice Department said. “That shows such recklessness that it’s almost worse than taking the documents.”
Barr defended the actions of the Justice Department and the FBI, saying that, for things to escalate to where a search of Mar-a-Lago was warranted, the department must “probably have pretty good evidence.”
“But that’s speculation,” Barr added. “I think the driver on this from the beginning was, you know, loads of classified information sitting in Mar-a-Lago. People say [the search] was unprecedented, but it’s also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put them in a country club.”
Barr also said Trump and his team “deceived” the Justice Department.
“They were deceived on the voluntary actions taken,” Barr said. “They then went and got a subpoena. They were deceived on that. … The facts are starting to show that they were being jerked around.”
Barr headed the Justice Department toward the end of Trump administration, and the two fell out after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.

 
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