Psaki Rips ‘The Former Guy’ When Asked if Biden is ‘Frustrated’ Trump Hasn’t Been Charged for Jan. 6
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki took a dig at “the former guy” when she was asked if President Joe Biden feels “frustration” that former President Donald Trump hasn’t been charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection investigation.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has been under pressure to quicken his investigation into the Capitol insurrection, and expand its scope to include Trump and his close associates. If The New York Times is to be believed, some of that pressure is coming from inside the (White) House:
The attorney general’s deliberative approach has come to frustrate Democratic allies of the White House and, at times, President Biden himself. As recently as late last year, Mr. Biden confided to his inner circle that he believed former President Donald J. Trump was a threat to democracy and should be prosecuted, according to two people familiar with his comments. And while the president has never communicated his frustrations directly to Mr. Garland, he has said privately that he wanted Mr. Garland to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor who is willing to take decisive action over the events of Jan. 6.
When Ms. Psaki briefed reporters on Wednesday, Huffington Post Senior White House Correspondent S.V. Dáte asked about that report. Psaki responded with a jab at two “former guys”:
MR. DÁTE: Thanks, Jen. There was a recent report that the President had expressed some frustration that the former President had not been charged. Without getting into the details of that, there are lots of people being charged with obstructing an official proceeding, meaning the January 6th certification.
Well, the former President was doing that openly and his administration was doing it. Why wouldn’t you charge him? And why hasn’t the President come out and said that if that’s the case?
MS. PSAKI: Well, I — first, I’ve never heard the President say those words — or say that phrase that was reported. And I know Ron Klain said something similarly, so I don’t know — we each spend a lot of time with him.
But I would say that the President, from the beginning, has felt strongly that the Justice Department and the Attorney General must operate independently, and any decisions about prosecution need to be made independently. And that is the strength of our system, even as the former guy ignored that and former-President Nixon ignored it as well.
The President does not want to be in that category of how you approach the separation of the White House and the Department of Justice. And — and he thinks that will even strengthen our systems as they’ve been weakened over the last few years.
AG Garland responded to critics on Friday by telling reporters that “the only pressure I feel, and the only pressure that our line prosecutors feel, is to do the right thing. That means we follow the facts and the law wherever they may lead.”
Watch above via The White House and Reuters.
