Former Attorney General Bill Barr criticized the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling to prohibit former President Trump from the state’s primary ballot Wednesday, saying the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to shut down the opinion and that the move could help Trump get elected.
Barr, who served as Trump’s attorney general but doesn’t support the former president in the GOP primary, focused his criticism on how the decision was made, not its contents.
“I strongly oppose Donald Trump for the Republican nomination, but I think that this case is legally wrong and untenable,” Barr said in a CNN interview. “And I think this kind of action of stretching the law, taking these hyper-aggressive positions to try to knock Trump out of the race are counterproductive. They backfire.”
“He feeds on grievance just like a fire feeds on oxygen. And this is going to end up as a grievance that helps him,” Barr continued.
The Colorado decision determined that Trump inflamed and engaged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and should be disqualified from the state’s ballot under the 14th Amendment. The complex case is likely set for the Supreme Court.
Barr refused to say whether he agrees with the merits of the case, later implying that he believes Trump is 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 14th 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.