Biden won’t answer questions about FBI’s Trump raid as spox declines comment 18 times
President Biden stayed silent Tuesday about the FBI’s unprecedented Monday raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate — as White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment 18 times at her regular briefing.
Biden took no questions at his public events as his aides insisted he had no advance knowledge of the bureau’s activities and referred other questions to the Justice Department.
“President Biden, what did Attorney General [Merrick] Garland tell you about the Trump raid?” a reporter for The Post shouted at the conclusion of Biden’s second event of the day, where he signed documents in the White House East Room approving the admission of Finland and Sweden to NATO.
The Post then followed up: “Do you approve of the FBI’s Trump raid, President Biden?”
Biden didn’t give a verbal response, though he smiled broadly during a photo with the ambassadors from Finland and Sweden after hearing the first inquiry.
Jean-Pierre also declined to address the raid in any detail at her Tuesday briefing as journalists attempted different approaches to their questions.
“This is not something I’m going to comment on today from here at all,” she said. “This goes to the Department of Justice and that’s where I refer you to.”
But Jean-Pierre also claimed the White House “learned just like the American public did” of the raid — without a tip-off from the Justice Department, echoing what a White House official told reporters Monday night.
The press secretary appeared to indicate that Biden was not briefed by Garland or other DOJ officials either before or after the raid in Palm Beach, Fla., and asserted that the president believes in the department’s independence.
But heads turned at the briefing when Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked Jean Pierre: “Is this administration weaponizing the Justice Department and the FBI against political opponents?”
Rather than giving a simple “no,” Jean-Pierre offered a lengthier response, saying, “The president believes in the rule of law. The president believes in the independence of the Department of Justice.”
Another reporter, Sebastian Smith of AFP, asked Jean-Pierre about Republican accusations of political bias at the FBI.
“Is [Biden] confident that he has a plan to address the way that a lot of Americans — maybe even a very large number of Americans — are being told and may now believe that Donald Trump is being persecuted, that the deep state is coming after you, that the IRS and the FBI and corrupt?” Smith asked.
“This is really believed, apparently. by really a lot of people. He’s the leader of the whole country, as he often says, does he have a handle on this?”
Jean Pierre replied, “Your question is still asking me to comment on what’s happening… I’m going to stick to what I’ve been saying… This is a criminal investigation that’s independent to the DOJ and we leave any inquiry, any questions about what is happening to the Department of Justice.”
The Justice Department is the parent agency of the FBI and is led by Garland, a former judge who former President Barack Obama nominated to the Supreme Court. When Trump won the 2016 election in a shocking upset, he killed Garland’s nomination,
Federal authorities have said very little on the record about the FBI raid, which is believed to be linked to more than a dozen boxes of documents that Trump brought to his Palm Beach home after leaving office.
It’s unclear whether the FBI is investigating Trump for potentially committing a crime and authorities reportedly were in contact with Trump’s legal team regarding potential classified information in his papers ahead of the raid.
Trump and his Republican allies — and even some Democrats, such as former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang — expressed concern about the raid on Trump, who is the GOP presidential frontrunner ahead of 2024.
Trump said that the raid is the continuation of the FBI’s “witch hunt” into whether he colluded with Russia during the 2016 campaign.
Trump’s former White House budget director, Russ Vought, called for the abolition of the FBI following the raid.
“If the cry of 2016 was ‘lock her up,’ the cry of 2024 must be ‘break them up.’ We are done with a deep state that is weaponized against the American people,” Vought wrote.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) vowed that House Republicans would investigate the FBI’s conduct if they retake power as polls suggest is likely next year.
Presidents have the unilateral ability to decide whether to declassify information, but critics say that Trump’s retention of records may run afoul of the Presidential Records Act. That law says violators can never again hold public office, though the provision may be unconstitutional due to Supreme Court rulings that only the Constitution and not statutes can enumerate requirements for federal elected office.
