(PM.) At the conclusion of a speech President Joe Biden gave on Wednesday regarding student loan debt relief, he responded to a single question from the press, stating that he had no advance warning of the FBI raidat former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence earlier this month.
This despite a letter in April stating that Biden had empowered the National Archives to to waive any claims of executive privilege that Trump might declare to block the DOJ from accessing any documents remaining in his possession.
“Mr. President, how much advance notice did you have of the FBI’s plan to search Mar-a-Lago?” Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked as Biden was preparing to leave.
“I didn’t have any advance notice,” Biden responded. “None. Zero. Not one single bit.”
The response from Biden echoed a similar sentiment expressed by the White House shortly after the raid.
In a White House press conference the day following the raid, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated: “No, the president was not briefed, was not aware of it. No, no one at the White House was given a heads up. No, that did not happen.
Despite these claims from both Biden and the White House, it has since been revealed that those within the President’s office had worked directly with the Department of Justice and the National Archives to begin the criminal probe into the alleged mishandling of documents by Trump.
Then-White House Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su was revealed top have been in discussions with the DOJ as early as April along with the FBI and the National Archives, shortly after 15 boxes of classified and other documents were voluntarily returned from Trump’s Florida home to Archive officials.
