Donald Trump indictment puts Joe Biden in uncomfortable spot
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington Tuesday. Credit: AFP / Andrew Caballero-Reynolds via Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump’s federal indictment has placed President Joe Biden in a unique and uncomfortable position — fielding questions about his administration’s investigation into his potential Republican opponent in the 2024 presidential race.
Biden, a longtime vocal critic of Trump, largely has remained silent on Trump's indictment on charges he criminally mishandled classified materials after leaving office in 2021.
Asked by reporters at the White House Tuesday if he would comment on Trump’s arraignment Tuesday at a Miami federal courthouse, Biden responded: “No.”
For months, Biden and White House officials have refused to weigh-in on the Department of Justice’s investigation into Trump’s possession of classified documents, asserting that Biden does not interfere in the department’s investigations — including those into business dealings of members of his own family.
“I have never once — not one single time — suggested to the Justice Department what they should do or not do, relative to bringing a charge or not bringing a charge,” Biden told reporters last Thursday, the day Trump said he had learned of his federal indictment.
A day later, Special Counsel Jack Smith unsealed the federal government’s 37-count indictment of Trump.
Trump, who has announced his candidacy for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the 37 felony charges. They included 31 counts of violating the Espionage Act by “willful retention” of classified documents, and six counts related to his alleged obstruction of the federal investigation.
Meena Bose, director of Hofstra University’s Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency, said “it is essential that the Biden White House is removed from the indictment and investigations of former President Trump, just to avoid any appearance of partisanship.”
Bose called it “important for President Biden, not to give any kind of commentary on this. The legal process has to unfold and that will hopefully minimize the political attacks that are taking place.”
Former Rep. Steve Israel, who advised Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, said Biden is looking to stay outside the fray surrounding Trump out of respect for the Justice Department and the judicial system.
“It would be inappropriate for him to speak on the indictment," Israel, a Democrat who represented New York's Third Congressional District, said of Biden. "The 37 counts speak for themselves.”
Trump and many Republican allies argue that Trump’s prosecution is politically motivated.
Several House Republicans including Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) have argued Trump should not have been charged criminally, given discovery of classified materials at Biden's Delaware home from his time as Vice President. Biden returned the documents and cooperated with federal investigators.
“To the contrary, the Biden Justice Department’s indictment of a Former President who is running against Biden, without … an indictment of their boss who stored classified material in his Delaware garage, reeks of political retaliation,” LaLota said.
While Trump’s legal woes have helped him rally support among his base of supporters, some Republicans such as first-term Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-Island Park), who flipped a Democratic House district last year, have responded carefully to Trump's indictment in the documents case.
“While our office continues to monitor the situation, Congressman D’Esposito’s focus remains on delivering meaningful tax relief to New Yorkers and fighting for safe streets,” D’Esposito spokesman Matt Capp told Newsday Friday when asked about Trump’s indictment.
Nassau GOP Chairman Joseph Cairo said Tuesday: “If it's selective prosecution, then I think that's something that we all have to be concerned about. I think that he [Trump] obviously deserves his day in court. Let the judicial system play its way out.”
Trump also was indicted in April by a Manhattan grand jury on 34 felony counts related to the attempts to pay hush-money to silence allegations of infidelity before the 2016 presidential election. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
With Vera Chinese
Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.
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