Then-Attorney General William Barr told Donald Trump that the team he had assembled to try to prove the election was stolen from him was a “clown show,” according to a new report. An article in The Atlantic based on interviews with Barr describes how he viewed Trumpworld allegations of an election-fraud conspiracy as “all bullshit.”

The former AG put it more delicately in a December interview with the Associated Press in which he said: “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.” But Trump was still irate, and reportedly went on a red-faced tirade about it. “How the fuck could you do this to me? Why did you say it?” he asked Barr, according to the magazine. Barr replied, “Because it’s true”—at which point the president responded, “You must hate Trump. You must hate Trump.”

Trump hit Barr with a fusillade of bogus fraud claims, the magazine reported, prompting the AG to tell him: “You know, you only have five weeks, Mr. President, after an election to make legal challenges. This would have taken a crackerjack team with a really coherent and disciplined strategy. Instead, you have a clown show. No self-respecting lawyer is going anywhere near it. It’s just a joke. That’s why you are where you are.” Trump’s reply: “You may be right about that.”