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Donald Trump's former attorney has issued a warning about the possibility of the former president winning the 2024 presidential election, despite the ongoing Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into his alleged January 6 role.
Speaking on the Fox News show Cavuto Live with Neil Cavuto, the former U.S Attorney General Bill Barr said Trump could "run out the clock" in Special Counsel Jack Smith's federal prosecution against him, meaning he could win the presidency before he could be convicted of a crime.
Federal prosecutor Jack Smith was appointed in November 2022 by the DOJ to investigate the former president's alleged role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. On Friday the Supreme Court declined to issue an expedited ruling, made by Smith, on whether Trump has presidential immunity from prosecution. Appellate courts are hearing the case, but the Supreme Court ruled Friday that it would proceed as normal.
Barr, who served as attorney general under George H. W. Bush from 1991 to 1993 and again in the Trump administration from 2019 to 2020, said the former president "has a lot of tools" and that "he may be successful".
Barr explained: "This issue here—I think everyone agrees that there's something called absolute immunity for your official functions—if you're performing an official function, the president has absolute immunity, and I think that has to be protected. I support that."
Explaining the view from both sides, he continued: "The government's position is gonna be that he was a candidate, he was acting as a candidate, not really as president. And [Trump's] argument is gonna be, I think, that whenever he uses an official function, if he directs the department to do something—even if the purpose is as a candidate—but if he uses that tool, then he's immune."
Barr also spoke about the ruling that means Trump has been disqualified from ballots in Colorado. He said: "I hope the [U.S. Supreme] Court—the Court has to smack this down very quickly. I think the legal argument here for it is ridiculous. Even more importantly, it is highly destructive, and it's exactly the kind of tactics by the left that created Donald Trump in the first place."
On Thursday, Colorado's Supreme Court ruled that Trump cannot run for the White House in next year's election, citing a clause regarding insurrection in the U.S. Constitution.
The court ruled four to three that Trump was not an eligible candidate because he had engaged in an insurrection through the Capitol riot in Washington D.C. It is the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.
When asked by Cavuto if he would vote for Trump or President Joe Biden, he said he would "jump off that bridge when I get to it".
Newsweek has contacted the Department of Justice for comment via email.
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About the writer
Aliss Higham is a Newsweek reporter based in Glasgow, Scotland. Her focus is reporting on Social Security, other government benefits ... Read more