Bill Barr, the former U.S. attorney general under President Donald Trump who once said he suspected Trump’s claims of election fraud were “bullshit,” is reportedly in talks to cooperate with investigators on the Jan. 6 committee.
The committee revealed earlier this year that it had informal discussions with Barr but Axios was first to report Thursday that an official transcribed meeting is now being negotiated. There is also a possibility that Barr could make an appearance during the committee’s public hearings but that was not confirmed.
The Jan. 6 committee will launch its public hearings beginning June 9.
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When Barr first spoke to members of the committee in January, he was tight-lipped about what he knew or didn’t know about the former president’s push to overturn the election.
He indicated to inquiring reporters at the time that he wasn’t clear what information he might have that would be valuable.
Barr stepped down from the Trump administration on Dec. 14, 2020. The resignation came two weeks after a very tense meeting at the White House that was sparked by Barr’s remarks to the Associated Press.
He had been unequivocal in a Dec. 1 interview when he said that he found no signs of rampant election fraud.
Trump caught wind of the remarks and summoned Barr for a meeting. Trump had spent weeks at this point promoting the lie that the election was rigged and that he would be defeated because of this.
The president peppered Barr with questions.
Trump was irate.
“He was asking about different theories, and I had the answers. I was able to tell him, 'This was wrong because of this,’” Barr told the AP.
The former attorney general has said previously that it was during this meeting that Trump gave him a report suggesting Dominion Voting machines were rigged and that they could be seized by the Justice Department.
Barr said he shut Trump down.
Earlier this year, the Jan. 6 Committee obtained a copy of a draft executive order dated Dec. 16—two days after Barr resigned—that instructed the Defense Department to seize voting machines and appoint a special counsel to explore election fraud.
Draft Order to Seize Voting Machines by Daily Kos on Scribd
That draft was rife with much of the conspiracy theory peddled by Trump’s lawyers like Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, though it is unclear who authored it. Ultimately, it was never put into effect.
On Dec. 18, Trump met with Powell, his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. Also at that meeting was Emily Newman, a Trump administration official, Eric Herschmann, a White House senior adviser and at one point, Trump’s attorney, Pat Cipollone.
Cipollone was reportedly the lone voice in the room who opposed having the government involved in the seizure. He was also alone in arguing that the DOJ and FBI had amply searched for fraud and found nothing.
Since his resignation, Barr has published a cherry-picked book and hit the media circuit. In the book and often in interviews, he portrays himself as a beleaguered barrier to Trump’s more erratic inclinations but does so without making apologies for his decisions or totally divorcing himself from Trump.
In March, when promoting the book, Barr told NBC News’ Lester Holt he thought Trump was “morally” responsible for the insurrection at the Capitol, but not legally responsible.
And when pressed on whether he would vote for Trump if he ran in 2024, Barr indicated he would. It would be “inconceivable” for him to vote for anyone who wasn’t the nominee for the Republican Party, he said.