The White House response to the Mar-a-Lago search last week, led by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, is that of strict neutrality towards the Justice Department, and even I have a hard time believing it.
The White House continues to stress they had no private knowledge of last week's FBI raid on former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate or the status of the ongoing Department of Justice investigation, citing the "complete independence" of the DOJ from politicization.
"We do not interfere. We do not get briefed. We do not get involved," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told ABC "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl in an exclusive interview on Sunday.
Pressed repeatedly by Karl, Jean-Pierre repeatedly declined to comment on any aspect of the federal investigation into Trump, including whether President Joe Biden is concerned about national security implications of the highly classified materials that federal agents said they found in Trump's possession. (Through a spokesperson, Trump claimed the files were declassified.)
"I hear your question, but it would be inappropriate for me as the press secretary to comment on this. It would be inappropriate for any of us, including the president or anyone in the administration, to comment on this," Jean-Pierre said. "This is a law enforcement matter. And the Department of Justice is going to move forward as they see fit."
Responding to Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik's contention that "the FBI raid of President Trump is a complete abuse and overreach of its authority," Jean-Pierre said that is "not true."
"This is not about politicizing anything. ... I would remind our folks on the other side that the FBI director [Christopher Wray] was appointed by the president's predecessor. I would remind the folks on the other side that when Merrick Garland was indeed confirmed, it was a bipartisan fashion," she said.
She told Karl that Biden had not even "discussed" the raid with law enforcement and that the White House had been learning of updates in the investigation through media reports.
Observations:
One, after a rocky start to her tenure, Karine Jean-Pierre is shaping up to be on the Jen Psaki side of things. That's good.
Two, KJP's answer here is 100% correct, if not technically perfect.
Three, I don't believe a word of it.
Look, I know in a vacuum of neutrality that the White House wasn't going to be informed because it's the DoJ's play here and not Biden's. But it strains credulity to believe that sending an FBI team to recover stolen nuclear TS/SCI documents from Trump's fucking pool closet doesn't warrant a highly unofficial White House heads up hours if not days ahead of time.
I truly do believe that Joe Biden had no part in the decision process for the Mar-a-Lago search. But I don't believe for a moment that the White House didn't know it was coming. This is arguably the most politically consequential search warrant issued in my lifetime, and yeah, Biden knew.
I understand why we're seeing this kabuki play. I don't agree with it. Even a simple "The White House was informed only after the warrant was being executed" would suffice. But "not even discussed" by the White House, given the stakes that Trump had stolen nuclear classified materials, when the FBI had been there before with a subpoena?
I call bullshit, and it pains me to do so. We'll find out this truth in a couple weeks or so, but it's just a dumb, unforced error. The White House wasn't blind on this. Being honest, given the scope of Trump's little collection and the extant threat to national security it represented, was the way to proceed, I'm sorry.
This was a bad call. Disagree with me in the comments and make your case, but I think this was the wrong move even if it had to be done.
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