“Honestly, I am skeptical of this claim [Trump] declassified everything,” Barr added. “Because, frankly, I think it’s highly unlikely, and secondly, if he was actually standing over a bunch of boxes, not really knowing what was in them, and saying ‘I hereby declassify everything in here,’ that would be such abuse and That shows such recklessness, it’s almost worse than getting the papers,” he said. Barr also rejected criticism that the FBI investigation was wrong because it was “unprecedented.” “Let me just say, I think the driver of this from the beginning was a lot of classified information sitting at Mar-a-Lago. [raid] it was unprecedented — well, it’s also unprecedented for a President to take all this classified information and put it in a country club, OK,” Barr said. “And how long is the government going to try to take it back? They’ve been jaw-dropping for a year, they’ve been deceived about the voluntary actions that were taken, they’ve gone and got a subpoena, they’ve been deceived about what they feel, and the events are starting to show that they were being shaken.” he added. “And how long, you know, how long have they been waiting?” Asked about his stance on Trump’s request for a special master to review documents related to the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, Barr called the idea a “red herring” and a “waste of time.” “Well, I think the whole idea of ​​a special master is a bit of a red herring,” Barr said, adding, “at this stage, after they’ve already gone through the paperwork, I think it’s a waste of time.”
Barr said there is a “reasonable concern” about protecting documents that could be related to Trump’s private attorney communications, but “it doesn’t appear to be a big part” and noted that he’s “not sure you need a special master to do that.” recognize”. “What’s missing is that all the other documents that have been obtained, even if they’re claimed to be executive privilege, or belong to the government because they’re government records — even if they’re classified, even if they’re subject to executive privilege — they’re still they belong to the government and go to the Archives,” he added.