Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr picked out Wednesday his “core problem” with the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to bar former President Donald Trump from the state ballot.
Barr said the decision was “legally wrong and untenable” and accused the four justices who ruled in favor of the decision of stretching the law in an attempt to remove Trump from the race. He said the “core problem” of the ruling was the alleged “lack of due process” practiced by the justices.
“The core problem here is the denial of due process. To deprive somebody of the right to hold public office requires due process. It requires an adjudication of two core issues: one, was there an insurrection. Did the public disturbance rise to the level of an insurrection? And second: what was the role of the individual in there? Was it engagement? Did they do something to break their oath of office? Those are complicated facts, and this was denied due process,” Barr told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“It was a five day hearing. There was no jury. It was before the judge. They were not able to subpoena witnesses and compel the attendance of witnesses. They relied on hearings, the January 6 Committee hearings, which was mostly here-say. There was no right to cross examine during those hearings and so forth,” the former attorney general explained.
He praised the dissent written by Chief Justice Brian Boatright and two associate justices, who argued the state law “was not enacted to decide whether a candidate engaged in insurrection.” (RELATED: Turley Gives Single Reason All 9 SCOTUS Justices Should Cut Down Trump Ballot Ruling Without Any Dissenters)
“The three Democratic justices who dissented, their opinions I think are masterful, and as they pointed out, the process here was procedural Frankenstein,” Barr said.
Barr further warned during the interview this ruling would lead to “chaos” and argued Trump has never been charged nor convicted of inciting an insurrection.
The four justices who voted to bar Trump from the ballot have all donated to Democrats.