Trump: Barr ‘Had an Obligation to Set the Record Straight’ on Hunter Biden Investigation

Then-Attorney General William Barr, left, and then- President Donald Trump in file photographs. Getty Images

President Donald Trump said that Attorney General William Barr was obligated to investigate Joe Biden’s son Hunter and his overseas business dealings.

“Joe Biden lied on the debate stage,” Trump told Fox News on Dec. 13. “He said ‘there’s nothing happening, nothing happening,’ and Bill Barr should have stepped up. Say what you want about Robert Mueller, when [a news outlet] put out a phony article ... Bob Mueller stepped out and he said that article was a phony and then there was ultimately proven there was no collusion.

“Bill Barr should have done the same thing,” Trump said “Bill Barr, I believe, not believe, I know, had an obligation to set the record straight, just like Robert Mueller set the record straight.”

The president was referring to Mueller’s investigation that found, ultimately, that Trump’s campaign didn’t collude with Russia in 2016. Later, the Justice Department’s (DOJ) inspector general’s office revealed that the FBI made a series of “significant errors and omissions” when launching an investigation into Trump’s campaign.

Last week, Hunter Biden said in a statement that he’s being investigated by the U.S. District Attorney’s office in Delaware over his taxes. His father’s campaign later confirmed it.

“All he had to is say an investigation is going on,” Trump said of the Bidens, adding that he doesn’t “want to see anything bad happen to Hunter Biden.”

Over the past several days, Trump has said Barr was essentially in dereliction of his duties by not investigating the Bidens or alleged election fraud.

Attorney General William Barr meets with members of the St. Louis Police Department on Oct. 15, 2020. Jeff Roberson/Pool via Reuters

In a tweet, Trump also wrote, “Why didn’t Bill Barr reveal the truth to the public, before the Election, about Hunter Biden. Joe was lying on the debate stage that nothing was wrong, or going on—Press confirmed. Big disadvantage for Republicans at the polls!”

Barr in early December issued a statement that his office and the FBI hadn’t found evidence of voter fraud that would overturn the outcome of the election. The DOJ later issued a statement saying that media outlets incorrectly reported on the entirety of his statement.

“IF Biden gets in, nothing will happen to Hunter or Joe. Barr will do nothing, and the new group of partisan killers coming in will quickly kill it all,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Dec. 12.

When asked about Barr’s job status after a meeting, the president told reporters: “Ask me that in a number of weeks from now.”

“They should be looking at all of this fraud,” Trump said after the meeting. “This is not civil. He thought it was civil. This is not civil. This is criminal stuff. This is very bad criminal stuff.”

Over the past weekend, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), head of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement that lawyers for Hunter Biden and Joe Biden’s brother, James Biden, haven’t been cooperating.

“It should be noted that, collectively, President Trump’s family and associates produced documents and agreed to appear at interviews with a number of congressional committees,” Johnson said in a statement.

Grassley and Johnson, in a supplemental report, said they discovered Hunter Biden’s links to individuals who have ties to the Chinese Communist Party and Moscow, among other revelations.