Bill Barr: Special Master Decision Was 'Deeply Flawed'

Bill Barr, already the subject of Donald Trump's ire because the Trump-era attorney general doesn't think the 2020 election was rigged, is now making no secret of his disagreement with a judge's decision to grant Trump's request to appoint a special master to review the documents seized by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago. "The opinion was wrong, and I think the government should appeal it,” Barr said on Fox News, per the Hill. “It’s deeply flawed in a number of ways. I don’t think the appointment of a special master is going to hold up, but even if it does, I don’t see it fundamentally changing the trajectory” of the case. He added that the issue could take months to be settled. Per CNN, he previously called the Trump team's request "a waste of time" and a "red herring."

As for the case itself, Barr said he hopes the Justice Department does not prosecute Trump because of how divisive that decision would be. "Even if they can technically make the case, there’s another step, which is, prudentially, do they want to do it?" he said. He added that "the government has very strong evidence of what it really needs to determine whether charges are appropriate, which is government tax documents were taken, classified information was taken and not handled appropriately. And they are looking into and there's some evidence to suggest that they were deceived." He said the content of the documents is not as relevant as "the fact that they were classified and the fact that they were subpoenaed and never delivered." (The Florida judge is facing sharp criticism after her ruling.)