By Chris Peeks December 22, 2023
Barr says Colorado court's 'legally wrong' Trump ruling 'will come back' Former Attorney General Bill Barr criticized the Colorado Supreme Court's decision Wednesday to bar former President Trump from running in the state's primary, saying the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to block the decision and the move could help Trump get elected. Barr, who served as Trump's attorney general but is not endorsing the former president in the GOP primaries, focused his criticism on the way the decision was made, not its content. "I oppose the Republican candidacy of Donald Trump, but I think this case is legally wrong and unsustainable," Barr said in an interview with CNN. "And I think that kind of strengthening the law and taking super-aggressive positions to knock Trump out of the race is counterproductive. It's going to backfire." “He eats complaint like fire eats oxygen. And it comes as a complaint that helps him," Barr continued. The Colorado ruling ruled that Trump agitated and participated in the January 6 Capitol riots and must be disqualified from the state election under the 1 th Amendment. The complex case is likely to end up in the Supreme Court. Barr declined to say whether she agreed with the content of the case and later suggested she believed Trump was responsible for Jan. 6, but he lodged his complaints with how the case was managed. The Colorado case had a short trial featuring five days of argument and was decided without a jury. “I disagree with the court’s ability to make those findings,” he said. “The core problem here is the denial of due process.” He argued that a case of that magnitude must span months of discovery, with complex argument and innumerable witnesses, comparing it to Trump’s federal indictment related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election . That case, however, does not accuse Trump of inciting an insurrection. The former attorney general said he expects the Supreme Court to take up the case on the Colorado ruling quickly and reverse it. “I hope they do,” he said. “Take it up quickly and slap it down, because otherwise [Trump] could be left off the ballot in this primary.” He also warned that if the Colorado case is allowed to stand, it would “create chaos,” with states frequently invoking the 1 th Amendment to kick national politicians off ballots. Trump’s legal team encouraged the Supreme Court to take its time to determine whether to take up the case this week. Trump is still on the ballot in Colorado, pending a federal Supreme Court decision.
By Chris Peeks
Reporter and Columnist
Alabama Political Contributor
Source The Hill; Nick Robertson
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