Former Attorney General William Barr said he believes former President Donald Trump is morally responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol but isn’t legally culpable.
Asked by NBC News’ Lester Holt whether he considered Trump “responsible” for the violence at the Capitol, Barr said: “I do think he was responsible in the broad sense of that word, in that it appears that part of the plan was to send this group up to the Hill. I think the whole idea was to intimidate Congress. And I think that that was wrong.”
But, he added, he hasn’t seen evidence that Trump committed an actual crime. “I haven’t seen anything to say he was legally responsible for it in terms of incitement,” Barr said.
Holt interviewed Barr for a prime-time special airing Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on NBC. It’s Barr’s first television interview since he stepped down as attorney general in December 2020 after 22…
