Former Attorney General Bill Barr told NBC News he does think former President Donald Trump was “responsible” for the January 6 Capitol riot.
In an interview with anchor Lester Holt, Mr Barr said: “I do think he was responsible in the broad sense of that word.”
“It appears that part of the plan was to send this group up to the Hill,” with the former president’s goal to “intimidate Congress”.
This week, a court filing from the Capitol riot House investigation alleges Mr Trump and a lawyer who assisted with his re-election campaign were part of a “criminal conspiracy” to overturn the 2020 election.
“The facts we’ve gathered strongly suggest that Dr [John] Eastman’s emails may show that he helped Donald Trump advance a corrupt scheme to obstruct the counting of electoral college ballots and a conspiracy to impede the transfer of power,” representatives Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney, who chair the 6 January investigation committee, said in a statement.
On Thursday, the former president unleashed a 415-word rambling tirade against the committee, repeating his allegations of a “rigged” election.
Meanwhile, lawyers for Mr Trump and the New York attorney general have reached an agreement to postpone depositions in the civil investigation, giving the former president at least a few months before he has to testify as part of an investigation into his business.
