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Former Attorney General Bill Barr is going hard against his former boss in a new op-ed published Monday, calling former President Donald Trump’s alleged actions in the documents case “brazen criminal conduct.”
Writing for The Free Press, Barr starts out sympathetic, agreeing with the former president that “Trump has been the victim of witch hunts by obsessive enemies willing to do anything to bring him down,” but then admits “The effort to present Trump as a victim in the Mar-a-Lago document affair is cynical political propaganda.”
Barr lays out the case against the former president. He says the National Archives and Department of Justice tried to let Trump quietly return the documents—similar to what happened when former Vice President Mike Pence and President Joe Biden were discovered to have classified documents at home—but he refused.
READ MORE: Donald Trump Popular Among House Republicans As Other GOP Members Turn On Him
“Why would Trump risk the safety of the American people by hanging on to these documents in the face of the government’s lawful demands for their return? As trophies? Because he thought it was a fun party trick?” Barr wrote. “Or simply because he thought he could get away with it? Knowing him, it was an act of self-assertion merely to gratify his ego.”
Barr’s piece debunks arguments from apologists before coming to the conclusion that it appears as though Trump indeed committed obstruction of justice.
“If true—and many key facts come from Trump’s own lawyer—this was brazen criminal conduct that cannot be justified in any way,” he wrote.
However, Barr again stops short of recommending prison time. On Sunday, Barr appeared on Face the Nation, saying if Trump is convicted, “I don’t like the idea of a former president serving time in prison.”
In the op-ed, Barr declines to state what an appropriate punishment should be. Initially, he says that “sensible Republicans” don’t defend Trump, but point to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton facing no charges over her email scandal in 2016. But Barr debunks this argument as well.
“But if Trump engaged in the kind of brazen criminal conduct alleged, then applying the law in his case is not unfair to him. The injustice lies in not having applied it seven years ago to Hillary,” he wrote. “Even if you buy the double standard argument, at most it justifies not holding Trump accountable criminally.”
“It is one thing to argue that Trump should not face criminal liability. Fine. But the next obvious question is whether, given his conduct, the GOP should continue to promote him for the highest office in the land,” Barr wrote.
Though Barr neglects to say what he thinks an appropriate punishment for Trump would be should he be found guilty, based on the maximum sentences attached to the statutes he allegedly violated, Trump could get 20 years for conspiracy to obstruct justice, and 10 years for violating the Espionage Act, according to Al Jazeera. That said, it is unlikely for Trump to get the maximum sentence as, in addition to being the former president, he’s also a first-time federal offender, as the outlet points out.
Elie Honig, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, told CNN that if Trump is convicted, that while it’s likely he would get some prison time, a sentence of eight to 12 years would be more likely—and even then, it may not be that much.
“Even if the judge goes below that eight to 12 year range, it’s hard for me to see a judge going down to probation, to no sentence,” Honig said.
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