Former Attorney General Bill Barr has come forward to support the indictment brought against former President Donald Trump, asserting that, contrary to assertions made by certain conservative legal experts, it does not infringe upon the protections afforded by the First Amendment.
Addressing the issue on Sunday, Barr acknowledged the intricacies of the case against Trump and conceded its complexity during an interview with CBS’ Major Garrett. Nonetheless, Barr underscored that the legal action being pursued does not encroach upon the boundaries of the First Amendment.
“This involved a situation where the states had already made the official and authoritative determination as to who won in those states, and they sent the votes and certified them to Congress. The allegation essentially by the government is that at that point, the president conspired, entered into a plan, a scheme, that involved a lot of deceit, the object of which was to erase those votes, to nullify those lawful votes,” Barr stated.
Barr conceded that, if the indictment was strictly regarding Trump’s insistence that he had actually won the 2020 presidential election, the case would be one that challenges the First Amendment, as Trump’s claims were subjective. Instead, Barr argues, the indictment goes beyond Trump’s claims and focuses instead on actions he took, including false certifications that were signed and attempting to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to use those as a pretext to reject the certifications for Biden and adopt the certifications for Trump.
“You have to remember, a conspiracy crime is completed at the time it’s agreed to and the first steps are taken,” Barr argued.
Barr told Garrett, from a prosecutor’s point of view, he thinks the case against Trump is a legitimate one, though he maintained there were other considerations in bringing about a case as an Attorney General.
