The White House said President Joe Biden is staying focused on other issues and not closely following along with the charges against former President Donald Trump.
“The president’s going to focus on the American people like he does every day, this is not something that is a focus for him,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a Tuesday White House press briefing.
The Biden administration has remained relatively tight-lipped about the recent indictment against his 2020 rival and potential 2024 opponent. On March 20, after Trump announced he expected to be charged in Manhattan, Jean-Pierre said, “We do not comment on any ongoing investigations from here. We’ve been very consistent on that.” On Friday, after Bragg’s office confirmed the charges, Biden told members of the press he has “no comment on Trump.”
After the arraignment hearing on Tuesday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office published the 16-page indictment and 13-page statement of facts in the case. The documents indicated Trump was charged with 34 counts of the same charge, falsifying business records. The charging documents alleged Trump facilitated the falsification of these business records by making payments to buy the silence of people planning to share negative allegations about him.