Former AG Bill Barr Says He’d ‘Bet’ Trump Will Be Indicted

Former Attorney General Bill Barr said Tuesday that he'd "bet” an indictment of Donald Trump is near.

“This is not a case of the Department of Justice conducting a witch hunt,” Barr, an ex-Trump Cabinet official, said on "CBS Mornings" in reference to special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into classified documents found at the former president's private Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. 

"In fact, they approached this very delicately and with deference to the president," adding that if he hadn't "jerked them around for a year and a half," he thinks this would have "gone nowhere."

Barr's comments came one day after Trump's attorneys reportedly met with Smith at DOJ headquarters in Washington, D.C., and as news broke that a second grand jury is meeting this week in South Florida to hear evidence in the special counsel investigation.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz also told Fox News Host Sean Hannity on Monday night that he believes Trump will be indicted — but for different reasons.

“Mark my words: I believe [Attorney General] Merrick Garland will indict Donald Trump,” because "he hates Donald Trump," Cruz said, adding "Garland is angry that he wasn’t confirmed to the Supreme Court. He wants to indict him.”

The Texas Republican also called Garland the "most partisan attorney general in the nation's history."

Garland's role in Smith's investigation is actually limited, per DOJ regulations. While the attorney general named the special counsel last fall, it's up to Smith on whether to press charges. Garland can overrule the special counsel too if a move "is so inappropriate or unwarranted under established Departmental practices that it should not be pursued." In that case, Garland would be required to submit a report to Congress notifying lawmakers of his decision.

Trump has frequently criticized the classified documents investigation into him. On Monday, he posted on Truth Social that he's expecting to get indictment. On Tuesday, he complained: "The Marxists and Fascists in the DOJ & FBI are going after me at a level and speed never seen before in our Country, and I did nothing wrong."