Trump’s Former AG Calls Election Fraud Claims ‘Compete Nonsense’

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Former President Donald Trump’s former Attorney General William Barr said that he opposed Trump’s claims of election fraud during a deposition shown as part of the House Select Committee Hearings on the January 6 attack on the Capitol on Monday, June 13. Barr said that he regularly told Trump that the claims about voter fraud were wrong. “I told them that it was crazy stuff and they were wasting their time on that and [it] was doing a great, grave disservice to the country,” he said at one point.

🚨 Former U.S. AG Bill Barr: I saw “zero basis” for Trump’s election fraud claims “complete nonsense,” “crazy stuff,” and they “were wasting their time on that and it was doing great, great disservice to the country.” Believes those “sensational” lies were influencing the public. pic.twitter.com/oms6hjPxRj

— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) June 10, 2022

Earlier in the deposition, Barr explained that he raised concerns about the “idiotic claims” and “disturbing” theories about Dominion Voting Machines, and that he saw no evidence for the claims that the machines had rigged the election against Trump. “[The claims about voting machines] were made in such a sensational way that they obviously were influencing a lot of people, members of the public, that there was this systemic corruption in the system and that their votes didn’t count and that these machines controlled by somebody else were actually determining it, which was complete nonsense,” he said.

Barr also said that Trump’s claims of voter fraud related to the Dominion Voting Machines raised concerns about the former president. Barr said that he raised these concerns to Trump on a number of occasions.  “I thought, boy, if he really believes this stuff, he has lost contact with—he’s become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff,” he said. “There was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts were. My opinion then and my opinion now is that the election was not stolen by fraud.”

The claims came after testimony from the former president’s campaign advisors earlier in the day, including a deposition from a former aide, Jason Miller. Miller testified that Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani was allegedly “intoxicated” and advised Trump to declare that he was the victor of the 2020 election, long before the votes could be counted. Trump later lost the election to President Joe Biden. 

Barr’s statements were previewed during the first hearing’s opening statement with portions of his pre-recorded interviews shown. During the interview, Barr said that he hadn’t seen evidence that there was voter fraud. “I told the President in no uncertain terms that I did not see evidence of fraud that would have affected the outcome of the election. And frankly, a year and a half later, I haven’t seen anything to change my mind on that,” he said during the clip. After the first clip was shown, Trump took to his Truth Social app to call out his former AG. “The Democrats hit pay dirt with Barr, he was stupid, ridiculously said there was no problem with the Election, & they left him alone. It worked for him, but not for our Country!” he said, hitting back at the clip shown.

During her opening statements, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) made a fierce statement placing the blame for the January 6 attack on the former president. “President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” she said. “Those who invaded our Capitol and battled law enforcement for hours were motivated by what President Trump had told them: that the election was stolen, and that he was the rightful president.”