Trump is toast if convicted, former US attorney general says

William Barr ran the Department of Justice under the former US president from 2019 to 2020

Former US president Donald Trump and his attorney general William Barr in September 2020. AFP

Donald Trump is “toast” if even half the allegations in the latest criminal indictment against the former US president are proven true, his former attorney general William Barr said on Sunday.

Federal prosecutors on Friday unveiled a 37-count federal indictment against Mr Trump over his handling of classified documents, including charges under the Espionage Act and allegations that he lied as part of a conspiracy to cover up his actions.

“I was shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were … and I think the counts under the Espionage Act that he willfully retained those documents are solid counts,” Mr Barr, who led the Department of Justice under Mr Trump from 2019 to 2020, told Fox News on Sunday.

“If even half of it is true, then he's toast.”

Mr Trump is due to appear in a federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday to make an initial appearance in the case.

Most of the charges against him stem from his retention and handling of secret and top secret documents that he took with him when he left the White House in January 2021 and relocated to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

Prosecutors say he kept the files willy-nilly in the popular property, where thousands of guests and visitors come and go. Some sensitive documents were even kept in a bathroom.

Donald Trump indicted in classified documents probe – in pictures

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  Boxes of records stored in a bathroom in the Lake Room at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. AP

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  Boxes of records on December 7, 2021, in a storage room at Mar-a-Lago. AP

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  Prosecutors outline what the classified documents Mr Trump stored in his boxes include. Department of Justice

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  Mr Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents. AP

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  Investigators seized about 13,000 documents from Mr Trump's Florida home last year. AP

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  Classified documents seized during the August 8, 2022, FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. AP

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  Boxes of records that had been stored in the Lake Room at Mar-a-Lago. AP

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  Records being stored on the stage in the White and Gold Ballroom at Mar-a-Lago. AP

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  Court documents show several counts against Mr Trump include maximum prison terms of 20 years. Reuters

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  Mr Trump attends an event with supporters at the Westside Conservative Breakfast, in Des Moines, Iowa. AP

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  Anti-Trump demonstrator Nadine Seiler across from the White House on June 9. Reuters

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  The Federal Courthouse in Miami, Florida. Getty / AFP

Although other former presidents have taken sensitive documents with them after leaving office, Mr Trump's case became so serious because he refused to co-operate with authorities when they asked for the documents back.

Mr Trump has vigorously denied any wrongdoing. He claims President Joe Biden and his administration have “weaponised” the Department of Justice and are engaged in a politically motivated witch hunt.

He also says that he had the authority to “declassify” any documents he wanted to, but investigators have an audio recording of him acknowledging that is not the case.

For the most part, Mr Trump's fellow Republicans have rallied around their leader and are propagating the narrative that he is a victim of political persecution.

Asked whether the indictment influenced their view of the former president, 61 per cent of Americans in a CBS News/YouGov poll on Sunday said it would not.

The survey found that 76 per cent of Republican respondents were concerned that the charges were politically motivated.

His lawyer, Alina Habba, told Fox that Mr Trump had done “nothing wrong” and would not take a plea deal to minimise fallout from the case as he seeks his party's nomination for the 2024 election.

“He would never admit guilt, because there was nothing wrong with declassifying documents,” Ms Habbe said. “This is completely politically motivated. It's election interference at its best.

But Mr Barr said the idea Mr Trump is a victim of a witch hunt “is ridiculous”.

“Yes, he's been a victim in the past. Yes, his adversaries have obsessively pursued them with phoney claims … But this is much different. He's not a victim here.

“He was totally wrong that he had the right to have those documents; those documents are among the most sensitive secrets that the country has,” Mr Barr said.

Mr Barr and Mr Trump were once close but their relationship ended badly after Mr Trump put pressure on him to conduct bogus investigations into voter fraud as the defeated president sought to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.

Among the documents Mr Trump allegedly held were battle plans against another country, reportedly Iran, that the indictment says he displayed to unauthorised people.

“Battle plans for an attack on another country or Defence Department documents about our capabilities are in no universe Donald J Trump's personal documents,” Mr Barr said.

Mr Trump told Politico on Saturday that he would continue his presidential campaign, even if he were convicted in the case, saying: “I'll never leave.”

This is the second indictment for Mr Trump, who has been separately charged with dozens of felonies in a New York state investigation into hush-money payments he allegedly made to a former adult film actress during the 2016 presidential campaign. Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty.

Legal experts say the new indictment, filed in Miami, Florida, is potentially more perilous for Mr Trump.

He also is being separately investigated in Georgia and Washington and is the first former president in US history to face a criminal indictment.

Mr Trump speaks during the North Carolina Republican Party Convention on June 10. AP