Former Attorney General Gives Decisive Assessment Of Latest Trump Indictment

Are the walls closing in on Donald Trump?

After years of political witch-hunts it seems the left is finally getting close to taking down the former President.

Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr gave a grim assessment of the latest federal indictment facing Donald Trump, saying the former president is likely “toast.”

Barr made the comments during a Sunday interview with Fox News reporter Shannon Bream. The Trump-era official said that before the issue evolved into a criminal investigation, the matter initially concerned the President Records Act and that the Espionage Act only came into play when Trump would not return the documents.

“Well, it started out under the Presidential Records Act and the Archives trying to retrieve documents that Trump had no right to have,” Barr said. “But it quickly became clear that what the government was really worried about were these classified and very sensitive documents. I was shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were, frankly. And so the government's agenda was to get those, protect those documents and get them out. And I think it was perfectly appropriate to do that, it was the right thing to do. And I think the counts under the Espionage Act, that he willfully retained those documents are solid counts.”

“It's a very detailed indictment and it's very, very damning,” Barr said. “And this idea of presenting Trump as a victim here, or a victim of a witch hunt, is ridiculous. Yes, he's been a victim in the past. Yes, his adversaries have obsessively pursued him with phony claims. And I've been at his side defending against them when he is a victim. But this is much different. He's not a victim here.”

“There was no problem or issue underlying the Russiagate claim. It was an effort to knock him out with a false claim,” Barr said. “Here, I think the government acted responsibly. They gave him every opportunity to return those documents. They acted with restraint. They were very deferential to him. And they were very patient. They talked to him for almost a year to try to get those documents and he jerked them around. They finally went to a subpoena, and what did he do? According to the government, he lied and obstructed that subpoena. And then they did a search, and they found a lot more documents.”

Barr bluntly stated that the documents that Trump had in his possession were “in no universe, Donald J. Trump's personal documents.”

Despite Barr's brutal assessment of Trump's future, the presidential candidate has firmly reiterated his innocence.

Over the weekend, Trump pledged he would “never” drop out of the 2024 race even if he is convicted on any of the criminal charges that he faces in multiple investigations.

“I'll never leave,” Trump told POLITICO in an interview. “Look, if I would have left, I would have left prior to the original race in 2016. That was a rough one. In theory that was not doable.”

Trump's remarks come after a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned a 49-page indictment against the former president last week, charging him with 37 criminal counts, with 31 of those being the willful retention of national defense information. Other counts include conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing documents or records, and making false statements. (RELATED: Trump Indictment Unsealed – Includes 37 Criminal Counts)

No trial date has been set, but the case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who Trump appointed to the Southern District of Florida bench in 2020.

Trump is scheduled to appear before Judge Cannon on Tuesday.

However, Barr is hardly the only expert cautioning Trump's supporters that the former president may be facing a rocky road ahead.

Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley says the former President could die in prison if convicted.

“The problem is, he's got to run the table — he's 76 years old,” Turley, a former opinion contributor for The Hill, said of Trump during an appearance on Fox News. “All the government has to do is stick the landing on one count, and he could have a terminal sentence. You're talking about crimes that have a 10- or 20-year period as a maximum.”

“Now, we have not heard their other side. Generally, the indictments are a lot stronger on the day they are issued than on the next day, so they may be able to knock down some of these issues,” Turley said. “But some of the evidence is coming from his former counsel, and these are very damaging statements made against him. It may be hard to move those.”

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