Former Attorney General Bill Barr heavily criticized claims by former President Donald Trump and some of his allies that he is being targeted and unfairly treated by the federal government in its case against him for his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office.
"This idea of presenting Trump as a victim here, a victim of a witch hunt, is ridiculous. Yes, he's been a victim in the past. Yes, his adversaries have obsessively pursued him with phony claims. And I've been at his side, defending against them when he is a victim. But this is much different. He's not a victim here," Barr told "Fox News Sunday."
Barr said Trump was "totally wrong" in saying he had the right to retain the classified documents.
"Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets the country has," Barr said. "He had no right to maintain them and retain them. And he kept them in a way in Mar-a-Lago, that anyone who really cares about national security — their stomach would churn at it."
"I was shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were frankly," Barr added.
While noting that Trump has a right to a defense, Barr described the indictment as "very damning" and the counts as "solid." He said it was "perfectly appropriate" for the government to try and recover the documents the former president had stored at his resort in Florida.
The former attorney general also pushed back against claims by Trump and others that what he had done was similar to the practice of former presidents (and which CNN and others have also fact-checked extensively).