All eyes are on Trump being kicked off the ballot. The future of the country is hanging in the balance.
And Bill Barr stunned absolutely everyone with what he just said about Trump.
Former United States Attorney General William Barr lambasted the Colorado Supreme Court’s judgment this week that former President Donald Trump is unable to be on the presidential primary ballot next year due to his conduct on January 6, 2021, as it relates to the 14th Amendment.
The 4-3 decision will be put on hold awaiting appeal until January 4, according to the Court’s judgment.
“A majority of the court holds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution,” the ruling said.
“Because he is disqualified, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Colorado Secretary of State to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot.”
On Wednesday, Barr spoke on CNN’s The Lead with anchor Jake Tapper to discuss the matter.
“As you know, I strongly oppose Donald Trump for the Republican nomination,” Barr said.
“But I think this case is legally wrong and untenable. I think this kind of action of stretching the law, taking these hyper-aggressive positions to try to knock Trump out of the race are counterproductive. They backfire. As you know, he feeds on grievance, just like a fire feeds on oxygen. This is going to end up as a grievance that helps him.”
Barr stated that he disagreed with the court’s capacity to make the findings in their ruling since the former president was denied due process.
“The core problem here is the denial of due process, to deprive somebody of the right to hold public office requires due process,” he said.
“It requires an adjudication of two core issues. One, was there an insurrection? Did the public disturbance rise to the level of an insurrection? And second, what was the role of the individual there? Was it engagement? Did they do something to break their oath of office?”
“Those are complicated facts and this was denied due process,” he said.
“It was a five-day hearing. There was no jury, it was before the judge. They were not able to subpoena witnesses and compel the attendance of witnesses. They relied on the hearings, the January 6 Committee hearings, which is mostly hearsay. There was no right to cross examine during those hearings and so forth.”
Barr stated that if the case is heard by the United States Supreme Court, “they’re going to slap it down very quickly, and I hope they do take it up quickly and slap it down, because otherwise, he could be left off the ballot in this primary.”
“Denial of due process is fatal here,” he told the audience.
“But as you’ve alluded to in your opening comments, the 14th Amendment is not something that can be applied willy-nilly by the states through sort of ad hoc proceedings. It was contemplated the federal government set up the enforcement mechanism. So, you have some standard, you know, what is the proof that’s required? What’s the procedure that’s required? And hopefully, some calibration of what exactly the insurrection is.”
While special counsel Jack Smith has charged the former president with multiple felonies, none of them constitute rebellion or incitement, according to Barr.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
