Former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr said Friday on FNC’s “America Reports” that if former President Donald Trump did have a standing order to declassify anything he took from the White House, that would have been such a reckless abuse that it is worse than taking the materials to his Florida estate.
Barr said, “The whole idea of a special master is a bit of a red herring. The only documents that have been taken, it seems to me, that there’s a legitimate concern about keeping away from the government and insulating the government from, would be documents relating to his private lawyer communications, him as an individual and as outside lawyers. If there’s stuff like that, fine. Identify it. There doesn’t appear to be much of it. I’m not sure you need a special master to identify it. But what people are missing are all the other documents taken. Even if they claim to be executive privilege belong to the government because they are government records even if they are classified even if they are subject to executive privilege they still belong to the government and they go to the archives.”
Anchor John Roberts said, “He claims that he had a standing order to declassify anything he took out of the White House when he left in January 2021. Is there any legitimate reason for those materials to be in the president, former president’s possession?”
Barr said, “No, I can’t think of a legitimate reason why they should have been could be taken out of the government, away from the government if they’re classified. I frankly am skeptical of this claim that ‘I declassified everything,’ you know. Frankly, I think it’s highly improbable. And second, 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, and that shows such recklessness that it’s almost worse than taking the documents.”
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