Former Attorney General William P. Barr says he thinks former President Donald Trump knew he lost the 2020 election but pursued efforts to overturn the results anyway.
“At first I wasn’t sure, but I have come to believe he knew well he had lost the election,” Mr. Barr told CNN.
Mr. Barr, who led the Justice Department under Mr. Trump from February 2019 to December 2020, offered his view on the eve of the ex-president’s arraignment on charges he entered a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and obstructed official proceedings.
Mr. Trump will travel from Bedminster, New Jersey, to Washington for his appearance at a federal courthouse near the foot of Capitol Hill. Multiple streets have been closed near the courthouse, and police have set up barriers to control foot traffic.
The indictment alleges that Mr. Trump used false allegations of fraud to cajole state and federal lawmakers to take steps to overturn the 2020 election results in key states.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers plan to defend his actions as being protected by the First Amendment, though Mr. Barr cast doubt on that strategy.
“As the indictment says, they are not attacking his First Amendment right,” he said. “He can say whatever he wants, he can even lie. He can even tell people that the election was stolen when he knew better. But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy.”
Mr. Barr defended Mr. Trump against charges of Russian collusion in the 2016 campaign but broke with the former president over Mr. Trump’s election-fraud claims and stepped down before the end of Mr. Trump’s term.
Mr. Trump and his supporters say the new indictment is solely intended to derail his 2024 presidential campaign.
On his social media platform, Mr. Trump refers to criminal cases against him as “election interference” and says he’s being stifled.
“The Radical Left wants to Criminalize Free Speech!” he wrote early Thursday.
Mr. Trump’s son, Eric Trump, told Fox News his father would “fight like hell” against the indictment and that the D.C. establishment pushes “lie after lie” to weaken the MAGA movement.
“We’ve dealt with this nonsense from the very beginning. We dealt with it with all the impeachments,” Eric Trump said.
The younger Mr. Trump also pointed to special counsel Jack Smith’s push for a speedy trial as evidence he wants to get him out of the way before the 2024 election.
Mr. Barr, however, defended Mr. Smith.
“He is the kind of prosecutor, in my view, that if he thinks someone has committed a crime, he, you know, homes in on it and really goes to try to make that case,” Mr. Barr said. “There’s no question he’s aggressive but I do not think he’s a partisan actor.”
The former attorney general said Mr. Smith probably collected plenty of evidence.
“We’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg on this,” Mr. Barr said. “I think there is a lot more to come, and I think they have a lot more evidence as to President Trump’s state of mind.”
