President Joe Biden said he had no advance warning of the FBI’s raid of Donald Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Florida.
After announcing his student loan forgiveness plan, Mr Biden was asked if he received a heads up before the FBI’s raid at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property.
“I didn’t have any advance notice. None. Zero. Not one single bit,” Mr Biden said, making a hand gesture to emphasise the point.
The White House has repeatedly denied any prior knowledge of plans for the 8 August search of the ex-president’s home, during which FBI agents retrieved 11 boxes of documents, including records bearing markings denoting them as classified “top secret” or as “sensitive compartmented information,” one of the highest levels of classification that is usually reserved for nuclear secrets or intelligence sources and methods.
At a news conference held several days after the search, Attorney General Merrick Garland said he personally signed off before the FBI asked a federal magistrate judge in West Palm Beach, Florida, to approve the warrant for Mr Trump’s home.
Since taking office, Mr Biden has made a point of keeping an arms-length separation between the Department of Justice’s role in conducting criminal investigations and prosecutions, and his role as head of the executive branch of the American government.
His restraint, once traditional for American presidents, honours a campaign promise not to tell the Justice Department who to investigate or prosecute. By contrast, Mr Trump frequently made clear his desire for various political enemies of his to face investigations or prosecutions.
Despite Mr Biden’s and the White House’s repeated claims to have not had any involvement in the search of Mr Trump’s home or the investigation into whether the ex-president committed criminal violations of US laws by retaining classified documents after he left office, Republicans and allies of Mr Trump have asserted — without evidence — that Mr Garland and the Department of Justice are merely carrying out political vendettas on behalf of Mr Biden.
The president’s assertion that he did not know about plans to search Mr Trump’s home is consistent with the position the White House has taken since the day following the search.
Asked whether Mr Biden had any advance warning, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre replied: “No, the president was not briefed, was not aware of it. No one at the White House was given a heads up. No, that did not happen”.
