Former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr is defending Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump after New York Attorney General Tish James announced she is suing them, the family business, and other people associated with their business in a massive civil fraud case.
James says she expects to be able to stop Trump from engaging in certain business operations in the state of New York, after alleging he fraudulently inflated and deflated the value of his assets based on if it would help or hurt him.
Barr, who gained a brief moment of praise from Americans for making clear Trump should not have stolen classified government documents and should have returned them, is being equally criticized after going to bat for the Trump family.
Despite years of investigations from James’ Office and other investigations, like out of the Manhattan DA’s office, Barr called the filing of charges a “political hit job” and “gross overreach,” while suggesting the actual case against Trump and his family is meritless.
“It’s hard for me not to conclude that this is a political hit job,” Barr said Wednesday on Fox News. “I’m not even sure that she has a good case against Trump himself, but what ultimately persuades me that this is a political hit job is that she grossly overreaches when she tries to drag the children into this.”
It was that phrase, “the children,” that angered many.
Donald Trump, Jr. is 44, Ivanka Trump is 40, and Eric Trump is 38.
Barr, who has a history of using cherry-picked information focused on one aspect of James’ massive 220-page, $250 million lawsuit.
Barr complained, “this is [Trump’s] personal financial statement, prepared by the CFO, accounting firms were involved in it.”
“The children aren’t going to know the details of that, nor are they expected in the real world to do their own due diligence and have it reviewed independently.”
Those “children” were or still are officers of The Trump Organization, and other Trump businesses. Given that Trump has created his empire as “pass-through” businesses, some have said they had an obligation to know what the valuations of the businesses were — and certainly once Trump became president, Eric and Don Jr., some might say, had a greater responsibility since their father told the American people he was stepping away from the business.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes did not hold back in his criticism of Barr, tweeting, “‘drag the children’ is an amazing phrase for grown-ass adults.”
“These ‘children’ were senior executives who ran the company,” reminds Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor. “Eric, for example, is 38 years old and took the Fifth over 500 times in his deposition in this matter.”
“When it’s infants being taken from their parents at the border, it’s ‘Oh well, sucks for them, shouldn’t’ve broken the law,’ but when it’s a 44yo, a 40yo and a 38yo doing white-collar crimes, it’s ‘HOW CAN THESE PRECIOUS CHERUBS POSSIBLY BE EXPECTED TO KNOW HOW THE WORLD WORKS?’,” tweeted journalist Bonnie Stiernberg.
“Bill Barr claimed on Fox News that it was a ‘gross overreach’ for AG James to sue Trump’s children,” says attorney and political commentator Dean Obeidallah. “Those ‘kids’ are currently Trump corporate officers in case of Don Jr/Eric while Ivanka is a former officer. They were personally involved in the wrongdoing. They HAD to be sued.”
“It’s amazing how white people can remain children well into their 40’s but black children are adults as soon as they can reach the counter,” responded author Patrick S. Tomlinson.
Attorney Dave Johnson sums it all up.
“N.Y. Bus. Corp. Law §715(h): ‘An officer shall perform his duties as an officer in good faith and with that degree of care which an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would use under similar circumstances.’ Barr is indisputably and intentionally lying to the public.”
Watch above or at this link.