White House press secretary Jen Psaki took aim at former US President Donald Trump on Monday as she deflected a question regarding Biden's usage of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
During a press conference in the Briefing Room of the White House, Psaki was questioned by Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy about President Biden's comments regarding the DOJ intervening on January 6 subpoenas.
Over the weekend, President Biden was asked by CNN for his message to those who refuse subpoenas from the panel, to which the POTUS replied: "I hope that the committee goes after them and holds them accountable."
And when further questioned on if he believes those people should be prosecuted by the DoJ, Biden said: "I do, yes."
Per the Daily Mail, DoJ spokesperson Anthony Coley has said in response to Biden's comments: "The Department of Justice will make its own independent decisions in all prosecutions based solely on the facts and the law. Period. Full stop."
On Monday, Doocy brought up Biden's comments, asking Psaki: "What's changed since last year when [President Biden] said, 'I will not do what former President Trump does and use the Justice Department as my vehicle to insist that something happened.'"
Psaki appeared to welcome the question, responding: "Well, since you give me the opportunity here... former President Trump used his office to incite an insurrection. He put political pressure on senior DOJ officials to propagate lies about the election to the point where they threatened to resign en masse. I think there’s hardly a comparison there."
Her comments also come after she further clarified Biden's comments in a tweet over the weekend, in which she wrote: "As @potus has said many times, January 6th was one of the darkest days in our democracy. He supports the work of the committee and the independent role of the Department of Justice to make any decisions about prosecutions."
After a back-and-forth with Doocy, Psaki went on to say at the press conference: "Criminal prosecutions are the sole purview of the Department of Justice. That is the President’s position. That is what he nominated the Attorney General to operate under.
"That is exactly what the Attorney General is doing. And those are the actions that people can watch from this administration."
Per Newsweek, Psaki previously told reporters on October 8 that any decisions the DoJ make will be independent from the White House.
"They're an independent agency," she said. "They're independent. They would—they would determine any decision on criminal prosecutions. I'd point you to them and, of course, the committee."
