Barr defended the FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property and said his former boss “pulled the plug” on the Justice Department. “I think the driver of this from the beginning was a lot of classified information that was sitting at Mar-A-Lago,” Mr. Barr told the right-wing news network. “People are saying this was unprecedented, well, it’s also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put it in a country club, okay?” His comments came as court documents revealed that agents found four dozen “CONFIDENTIAL” blank document files during their August search of the property, as well as dozens of classified and top secret documents. “How long has the government been trying to get it back?” Added Mr. Barr. “They jawed for a year, they were deceived about the voluntary actions that were taken, then they went and got a subpoena, they were deceived about it, they feel. “The facts are starting to show that they were misled, so how long are they waiting?” The investigation came after the FBI went to Mar-a-Lago in June to collect classified documents, before returning several months later to remove more material. Barr also rejected Trump’s claims that he dismissed the documents moved from the White House to Florida as “highly improbable.” He said that if Mr. Trump “stood over a bunch of boxes, not really knowing what was in there and said, I’m declassifying anything in here that would be such an abuse and that shows such recklessness that it’s almost worse than getting the documents. “ And it also struck down Mr. Trump’s lawsuit seeking a Special Master to review the items seized by the FBI. “Well, I think the whole idea of a Special Master is a bit of a red herring… at this stage, as they’ve already gone through the paperwork, I think it’s a waste of time.” Mr. Barr was sworn in as AG in February 2019, but resigned after Trump’s 2020 election loss to Biden.
