Donald Trump trashes his former attorney general Bill Barr in a three-page letter released Monday morning alleging he fired a Justice Department official because he “didn’t have the backbone.”
Barr gave a lengthy interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt that aired Sunday night to promote the release of his new memoir, One Damn Thing After Another.
Trump said of the upcoming book, “I guess if the book is like him, it’s going to be long and slow and very boring.”
Ex-official of the Ministry of Justice condemned the actions of the ex-president elections 2020 allegations of fraud and its role in last year’s Capitol riot, both in his book and in a TV interview.
“Bill Barr cares more about being accepted by the corrupt Washington media and elite than serving the American people. He was slow, sluggish, and I realized early on that he never had what it took to be a great attorney general,” Trump’s letter began.
“When radical left-wing Democrats threatened to put him in contempt and, worse, impeach him, he became practically useless for law and order and fair elections. They broke him the way a trainer breaks a horse.
A March 2 letter received by Axios was sent to NBC headquarters in New York. It has a series of questions followed by Trump’s lengthy responses, apparently in response to an NBC news team seeking comments on Barr’s interview.
Trump sent a March 2 letter to NBC News headquarters in New York that appears to be in response to statements made by Bill Barr in his lengthy Sunday night NBC interview with host Lester Holt.
It was printed in the name “Mr.” Holt,” but the ex-president seemed to take a more personal approach, crossing it out and handwriting “Lester.”
Trump said that Barr’s dismissal of his 2020 election fraud claims was a “virtual joke”.
In support of this, he allegedly attached a report pointing to “widespread corruption” in at least one swing state in the election count, which was not included in Monday’s letter report and did not appear to have been picked up by NBC.
The former president accused Barr of now “bowing down before the media, hoping to get recognition he doesn’t deserve.”
During his interview with NBC, Barr said he was “furious” when he learned that Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during their infamous 2019 phone call that the attorney general would contact him about Trump’s political rivals.
He told Holt that Trump “never had a good idea, you know, about the role of the Justice Department.” [and] to some extent, you know, the role of the president.”
Trump appeared to have responded to the allegation in a new letter, saying that what he was asking Barr had “nothing to do” with his personal problems.
“As President of the United States, I am the Chief Executive responsible for the heads of departments, including the Attorney General. When I saw that the Department of Justice was not doing its job, I have every legal right to ask them to do it in accordance with the law and the Constitution. This has nothing to do with my personal legitimate interests,” said the ex-president.
Barr briefly responded to Trump’s letter during another NBC interview Monday morning.
Barr told NBC’s Holt that he doesn’t believe Trump understands how the Justice Department works and that he was “furious” to learn that his former boss had indicated that Barr’s department should investigate Trump’s political rivals.
“With regard to the prosecution of political rivals, it was just the opposite. Despite the many crimes committed by the Biden family, I did not push Barr to go after them. Although what was done was legendaryly corrupt, I thought it would be inappropriate for me personally to get involved in it.”
In his forthcoming book, Barr claims he condemned Trump’s attempt to discuss President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, who at the time was under a federal investigation into his overseas business dealings.
He also details one latest, explosive confrontation with Trump, in which the former president told Barr that he “must hate Trump” because he publicly rejected the idea of widespread electoral fraud shortly after Biden won the White House.
Trump said Barr was “broken” by the Democrats and is now “bowing down in front of the media, hoping to get the recognition he doesn’t deserve.”
Barr claims in his book that Trump told him to go home immediately in response to Barr’s offer to resign. He left the Justice Department at the end of December 2020.
Trump called Barr’s version of events “incorrect and completely fabricated.”
Instead, the former president stated that he said: “If you have not seen the corruption in the elections, about which so much has already been revealed (and in huge numbers before this date), then (sic) you are not capable of being a prosecutor. General. You don’t have the energy or the backbone to oppose the radical left. Please give me your resignation letter.
Barr responded to Trump’s letter live in an interview with NBC Today on Monday morning.
“Stolen and falsified are different things, but there was no theft of elections through fraud,” the ex-prosecutor general reiterated. “That means people who don’t have the right to vote or don’t exist, their votes have been counted or good votes have been subtracted.”
“The vote reflected the decision of the people.”
The final question Trump asks in his letter is Barr’s claims about last year’s uprising.
On Sunday night, Barr said he held Trump “morally responsible” for the events of January 6, 2021, though he admitted he wouldn’t go after his former boss for it.
“I do think he was responsible in the broadest sense of the word, as part of the plan was to send this group to The Hill,” Barr said. “I think the whole idea was to intimidate Congress. And I think it was wrong.
Trump said “January 6 wouldn’t have happened” if Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington, D.C. agreed to beef up security at the Capitol that day.
“They weren’t interested in stationing troops in Washington because they ‘didn’t like the look.’ If they accepted my offer, there would be no January 6th as we know it,” Trump said.
He stated: “I was the President of the United States and I was asked to give a speech on January 6th. I went to the site, gave a speech, and returned to the White House.”
“Now the witch hunt continues with Shifty Adam Schiff, RINO Liz Cheney and other members of what I call the Unselection Committee. In the long run, the American people will win.”
In his Monday morning interview, Barr called Trump’s letter “childish.”
“It’s in the order of things,” he replied when asked about his reaction.
“The president is a person who, when he is told something he does not want to hear, immediately throws a tantrum and attacks the person personally. So I thought the letter was… was childish.