WATCH: Bill Barr calls Trump indictment an ‘abuse of the prosecutive function’

Former Attorney General, Bill Barr, has criticized the Manhattan District Attorney Office’s decision to indict the former US President, Donald Trump, calling it an “abuse of the prosecutive function”.

“It’s the very essence of the abuse of the prosecutive function, which is pursuing a person rather than pursuing a real crime,” Barr stated during an interview with Fox News. “I think the American people see that.”

Barr asserted the lack of legal basis for the case, stating that pursuing someone for making a hush payment is not illegal, and the alleged falsification of corporate records does not qualify as fraud, as nobody was defrauded. Barr also highlighted the error of viewing the payment as a campaign-finance violation. He claimed that the district attorney jumped into the federal arena and is interfering in a federal election process.

Barr described the indictment against the former president as a “watershed moment” and blamed the “corruption of the media” for creating a “mob mentality in our country” instead of “restraint on mob thinking.”

Trump was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday, and he is the first former president in U.S. history to be indicted.