White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was pressed on air to react to the explosive breaking news report that FBI agents were searching for classified documents related to nuclear weapons during their raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Monday.
During an appearance on MSNBC on Thursday, which took place within minutes of the Washington Post publishing the story, Jean-Pierre was asked to give the White House response. She declined to offer one.
“It would not be appropriate for us to speak to this or comment on this. And so we leave it to the Department of Justice,” she said.
Sources told the Washington Post that such classified information was among the items agents look for in the search but declined to speak about any other materials that may have been sought. It remains unclear whether they found any nuclear documents. The report said the Justice Department and FBI declined to comment.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced earlier in the day that he had personally approved the FBI’s decision to seek a search warrant. He also revealed the Justice Department requested permission from a federal court to unseal the court-approved search warrant that authorized the bureau’s raid. Meanwhile, Trump claims he has been cooperating with investigators while decrying the raid as being politically motivated.
Trump attorney Christina Bobb cast doubt on there being nuclear records at Mar-a-Lago but could not say for certain when pressed Thursday evening by Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “I have not specifically spoken to the president about what nuclear materials may or may not have been in there. I do not believe there were any in there,” she said, noting that Trump’s legal team has been thorough in finding documents to hand over to the Biden administration.
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Jean-Pierre insisted the White House has been “pretty consistent” in stressing that the Department of Justice is independent when it comes to investigations.
President Joe Biden “has been — and I said this many times, he has said this many times — he has been pretty consistent in that he believes in the rule of law. And he believes in the independence of the Department of Justice,” she added.
