Bill Barr: Prosecutors should 'do the right thing' and dismiss Trump cases: 'Respect the people's decision'

Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who served during President-elect Trump's first term, is calling on state and federal prosecutors to drop pending legal cases against Trump before he takes office again.

Barr told Fox News Digital that voters were aware of all the allegations against Trump when they elected him to a second term on Tuesday and that it was in the best interest of the country for prosecutors to listen to them.

“The American people have made their judgment on President Trump and decisively selected him to lead the country for the next four years,” Barr said. “They did so with full knowledge of the allegations made against him by prosecutors across the country, and I believe Attorney General Garland and the prosecutors should respect the people’s decision and dismiss the cases against President Trump now.”

Barr claimed that the legal theories in some of the cases had already been “significantly weakened by a series of court decisions” and that the issues “have now been fully argued and rejected by the American people.”

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President-elect Donald Trump has yet to be sentenced in the New York criminal case in which he was convicted earlier this year, and former Attorney General Bill Barr says that case – and all other cases pending against Trump – will be dropped before he takes office should. (Steven Hirsch Pool/Getty Images)

Once Trump takes office in January, prosecutors will not be able to continue the cases while he is in office, Barr stressed. A Trump-appointed attorney general could end federal cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith, one in Washington, D.C., over alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and another in Florida based on allegations related to the retention of classified documents after his death take up his first term of office.

The Florida case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on technical grounds related to Smith's appointment, and the Washington case was undermined by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that presidents enjoy immunity from prosecution for certain official acts.

“We won immunity from the Supreme Court,” Trump told Hugh Hewitt last month. “It's that simple. I would fire (Smith) in two seconds. It will be one of the first things addressed.”

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However, Trump would be powerless to stop the state cases brought against him in New York and Georgia. One is a pending state criminal case in Georgia based on alleged attempts to overturn that state's results in the 2020 election. He was also convicted in a New York criminal case of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for later this month.

Barr said local prosecutors and judges must move away from the spectacle of prosecuting a soon-to-be president.

“Further maneuvers in these cases in the coming weeks would serve no legitimate purpose and would only distract the country and the new government from the task at hand,” he said.

“The public interest now requires the country to come together and focus on the challenges we face at home and abroad. Attorney General Garland and all state prosecutors should do the right thing and help the country move forward by dismissing the cases,” he added.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who served in President-elect Trump's first term, is calling on current Attorney General Merrick Garland and other prosecutors to drop cases against Trump before he takes office again in January 2025. (Michael Reynolds Pool/Getty Images)

This also includes the New York criminal trial, in which Trump has already been found guilty but has not yet received a verdict. Barr called on prosecutors to drop the case even though there was already a conviction.

“This case is rife with legal abuses and errors,” Barr said. “If the trial were to continue, it would ultimately be overturned, but we should not tolerate such a distraction. And I think the right thing would be for prosecutors to dismiss the case.”

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Asked whether this is likely to happen, Barr responded bluntly.

“We’ll see what they think of democracy.”