The White House on Tuesday insisted that President Joe Biden had no prior knowledge of the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago.
“The president was not briefed, was not aware of it. No one from the White House was given a head’s up,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed during the daily briefing on Tuesday.
She repeated that Biden learned about the raid from public media reports “just like the American people.”
Jean-Pierre also insisted that Biden’s Justice Department was “independent” from his administration under the leadership of Attorney General Merrick Garland, citing the president’s endorsement of Garland’s leadership when he was selected as Attorney General.
“I want to remind everyone of what Biden said when he nominated Merrick Garland: ‘We need to restore the honor, integrity, the independence of the Department of Justice that has been so badly damaged,’” she said.
Jean-Pierre repeatedly refused to comment on even the smallest details of the Department of Justice, including if she even knew whether Garland “signed off” on the raid of Trump’s home.
“I’m not going to comment further from here,” she said, referring all questions about the criminal investigation of the former president to the Justice Department.
When asked if she believed Trump was a political rival of Biden, Jean-Pierre replied, “I’m not going to speak to that from here.”
She also would not reveal whether or not Biden had spoken with Garland since the raid.
“I’m just not going to speak further on any conversations,” she replied. “There’s no calls for me to preview.”
Biden also ignored reporter questions about the raid after speaking at an event at the White House on Tuesday afternoon.
