“In fact, they approached this very delicately and with deference to the president,” Barr told Gayle King on “CBS Mornings.”

The investigation would have “gone nowhere” had Trump simply returned the documents, he continued. “But he jerked them around for a year and a half.”

There is “no excuse for what he did here,” Barr said of Trump, adding that “whether it’s a crime or not, remains to be seen.”

Barr said an indictment for Trump in the documents case appeared to be “near.”

“I’ve said for a while that I think this is the most dangerous legal risk facing the former president,” he added.

He also described Trump as “almost unique in his inability to attract voters” as he “repels people other than his core base.”

Tony