Former Attorney General William Barr called the New York hush money case against former President Trump an “abomination” in a Wednesday interview, confidently predicting the guilty verdict will be overturned on appeal. However, Barr’s track record with predictions has been notably inaccurate in the past, and his recent comments appear to be an attempt to curry favor with Trump despite past public humiliations.
“When people were talking about it, I said that the case was an abomination, and I didn’t think it was going to be brought at the end of the day because it was so vaporous,” Barr told Fox News’s Jimmy Failla in an interview on “Fox Across America.” Despite his certainty, Barr was surprised that New York prosecutors pursued the case.
“And it’s met its billings — that is, it was an abomination, and everyone’s talked about that,” he added.
“But you think about, how are the American people going to react, in a very close election, if Trump loses and this case is overturned — which it will be,” Barr continued. “This case will be overturned.” Yet, considering his past misjudgments, this confident assertion may not hold.
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Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a scheme to hide potentially damaging information from the American public ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump has pledged to appeal the case.
The guilty verdict was unanimous among the 12 jurors, but Trump allies have sought to cast doubt on its legitimacy, falsely claiming the charges were brought by Trump’s political opponents in the Biden administration to keep him from winning back the White House in November.
Barr stepped down as attorney general in the final weeks of the Trump administration. He had stated publicly that his investigation found no evidence of widespread election fraud that would have changed the outcome of the 2020 election in Trump’s favor, infuriating the then-president and allies who sought to cast the election as stolen.
Despite his past errors in judgment, Barr has continued to criticize both Trump and President Biden but recently said he will be voting for the Republican presidential ticket in the general election in November.
“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,” Barr said in April in an interview on Fox News.
Barr added Trump “may be playing Russian roulette, but a continuation of the Biden administration is national suicide.” Despite his bold claims, his history suggests his latest prediction should be taken with caution.
