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Former Attorney General Bill Barr spoke out over the weekend about the charges being brought against many of the people being charged over January 6th, as well as the effort to remove the former President from the 2024 ballot.
On Saturday, Barr said in an interview with Fox News‘ Neil Cavuto that “Like everything else the left does, they did, I think, go too far.”
Barr said that those that got violent and broke into the capitol on January 6th should absolutely be prosecuted for their role in the January 6th riot, but that the DOJ “cast their net too broadly” when they went after people who remained peaceful.
“But I think they cast their net far too broadly and have been hounding people that really, you know, just walked into open doors in the Capitol and hung around,” he also said. “I think they just took it too far.”
Barr said that he opposes Donald Trump’s renomination but that his defeat should be done the appropriate way at the ballot box, rather than remove him from the ballot. Barr warned that a second term of Donald Trump would be “chaotic” and that he would come into office immediately as a lame duck president.
Barr also said that we can’t leave it up to the states to determine what an insurrection is and how much evidence is needed. He said that Article 14, Section 3 (which states that “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof”) can only be spelled out by congress on how that would be enforced.
Cavuto also asked Barr about Trump allegedly violating his gag order by calling Barr a coward. Barr said that he doesn’t consider being called a coward a violation of the gag order and that the former President should be able to speak freely about the charges against him.
So far more than 1,200 have been charged in connection to January 6th, with more than 90% of the defendants being charged only with entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds, the Justice Department reported last week.