Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who served in President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration, is calling on prosecutors at the state and federal levels to dismiss the pending legal cases against Trump before he takes office once again.
Barr told Fox News Digital that voters were well aware of all the allegations against Trump when electing him to a second term in office on Tuesday, and that it is in the country’s best interest for prosecutors to listen to them.
“The American people have rendered their verdict on President Trump, and decisively chosen him to lead the country for the next four years,” Barr said. “They did that with full knowledge of the claims against him by prosecutors around the country and I think Attorney General Garland and the state prosecutors should respect the people’s decision and dismiss the cases against President Trump now.”
Barr asserted that the legal theories in some of the cases already had been “greatly weakened by a series of court decisions,” and that the matters “have now been extensively aired and rejected by the American people.”
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President-elect Donald Trump has yet to be sentenced in the New York criminal case where he was convicted earlier this year, and former Attorney General Bill Barr says that case – and all others pending against Trump – should be dismissed before he takes office. (Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images)
Once Trump takes office in January, Barr pointed out, prosecutors will be unable to continue the cases during his term. A Trump-appointed attorney general can end the federal cases brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, one in Wasdhington, DC, for alleged efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, and another in Florida based on allegations dealing with retaining classified documents after his first term.
The Florida case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on technical grounds involving Smith’s appointment, and the Washington case was undermined by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that presidents have immunity from prosecution for certain official actions.
“We got immunity at the Supreme Court,” Trump told Hugh Hewitt last month. “It’s so easy. I would fire [Smith] within two seconds. He’ll be one of the first things addressed.”
But Trump would be powerless to stop state cases brought against him in New York and Georgia. One is a pending state criminal case in Georgia based on alleged efforts to overturn that state’s results in the 2020 election. He has also been convicted in a New York criminal case for falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, and has a sentencing hearing set for later this month..
Barr said the local prosecutors and judges need to move on from the spectacle of prosecuting a soon-to-be sitting president.
“Further maneuvering on these cases in the weeks ahead would serve no legitimate purpose and only distract the country and the incoming administration from the task at hand,” he said.
“The public interest now demands that the country unite and focus on the challenges we face at home and abroad. Attorney General Garland and all the state prosecutors should do the right thing and help the country move forward by dismissing the cases,” he added.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who served in President-elect Trump’s first administration, is calling on current AG Merrick Garland and other prosecutors to dismiss the cases against Trump before he retakes office in January 2025. (Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)
This includes the New York criminal case in which Trump was already found guilty, but has yet to receive a sentence. Barr called on state prosecutors to dismiss the case, despite already securing a conviction.
“That case is rife with legal abuse and error,” Barr said. “If it were continued to be litigated it would ultimately be overturned, but we shouldn’t put up with that kind of distraction. And I think the right thing to do would be for the prosecutors to dismiss the case.”
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When asked if this is likely to happen, Barr’s response was blunt.
“We’ll see what they think of democracy.”