Former AG Barr said Trump became enraged after being told election fraud claims were nonsense

Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr said then-President Donald Trump became furious after Barr told him there was no evidence that the 2020 election was fraudulent.

“I told him that all this stuff was bulls—… about election fraud. And, you know, it was wrong to be shoveling it out the way his team was,” Barr said in an interview with NBC News’s Lester Holt that’s scheduled to air Sunday night. First highlights of the interview aired Thursday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”

The sit-down with Holt is Barr’s first televised interview since he stepped down as attorney general in late Dec. 2020. Barr is publishing a new book about his time in the Trump administration, which has prompted criticism from some that he remained silent about the former president until he could profit from book sales.

Holt’s interview will air tonight on NBC Nightly News at 6:30 p.m. ET, with the primetime special airing this Sunday at 9 pm ET on NBC. 

Barr told Holt his last day almost came on Dec. 1, after Trump summoned him to a meeting in the White House. The call came after the Associated Press published an interview with Barr where he said there was no evidence of any widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, despite Trump’s claims to the contrary.

“To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” Barr told the AP.

Barr said Trump called him into a meeting that day in his private dining room, and questioned him about his comments.

Barr said he told Trump the Department of Justice had investigated and found no evidence to support the various conspiracy theories that Trump and his legal team were pushing.

“He was asking about different theories, and I had the answers. I was able to tell him, ‘This was wrong because of this,'” Barr recounted.

Trump listened, but “he was obviously getting very angry about this.”

Barr said he told Trump, “I understand you’re upset with me. And I’m perfectly happy to tender my resignation.” 

Barr said Trump then slapped his desk and said, “Accepted. Accepted,” Barr recalled. “And then – boom. He slapped it again. ‘Accepted. Go home. Don’t go back to your office. Go home. You’re done.'”

In a letter to NBC responding to Barr’s interview, Trump said he was the one who asked Barr to resign that day and called his former attorney general’s account a fabrication.

Trump had White House lawyers stop Barr before he left the premises to tell him he wasn’t fired, but the president continued to take shots at Barr publicly.

“He hasn’t done anything. He hasn’t looked” for voter fraud, Trump complained at an event at the White House on Dec. 3. “This is criminal stuff. This is very bad, criminal stuff.”

Barr submitted his formal resignation on Dec. 14th.

“I am proud to have played a role in the many successes and unprecedented achievements you have delivered for the American people,” Barr told Trump in his resignation letter.

Trump then tweeted praising Barr. “Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job!” Trump wrote.

In an wide-reaching interview with Barr, whose book “One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General” goes on sale March 8, Holt challenges him on his record as Attorney General. The interview is scheduled to air in a primetime special Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.