Biden White House claims prosecution of Trump is not political—campaign stages political event outside NYC courthouse

The Biden White House and the Biden Harris campaign have repeatedly said that the criminal trials against Donald Trump are not political and are not a weaponization of the Department of Justice. They have said over and over that the DOJ is independent. On Tuesday, the campaign staged a political event outside the NYC courthouse where Trump has spent weeks facing charges of falsification of business records.

Speaking to press, campaign comms director Michael Taylor said "First of all let me say this first and foremost, we're not here today because of what's going on over there," motioning to the courthouse, "we're here today because you all are here." He then introduced Biden campaigners actor Robert De Niro and two Capitol Police officers who were on duty on January 6, 2021. Dunn ran for office and lost.

Tyler then took aim at Biden's chief political opponent, the man who Biden is trailing in many swing state polls, Trump. Tyler suggested that Trump was "somewhere fighting for himself," and called him an "unhinged, power-hungry, self-centered man" who "rambles." Tyler launched into a campaign diatribe against Trump and brought up the coming debate, insinuating that Trump might not "show up" for that date.

When asked about the independence of the Department of Justice in its pursuit of criminal cases against Trump, which were joined by cases brought by Democrat DAs in New York and Georgia, the White House claimed that Biden had restored "integrity" to the DOJ by bringing on Merrick Garland as AG, the same Garland who was instructed by Biden to prosecute Trump, per a report from The New York Times. The White House claimed that there was no political motivation in the prosecution of Donald Trump.

The press secretary said at the time that "It would not be appropriate for us to comment on any ongoing investigations." That does not extend, however, to the political campaign which saw fit to offer commentary outside the courthouse where the verdict would shortly be decided by a judge whose daughter is a known Democrat operative.

Biden spox Tyler said that the reason the campaign chose to stage a campaign event outside the criminal trial of their primary political opponent was because of the threat that opponent posed to the nation and to "democracy." Tyler did address concerns that staging a political campaign event outside of said criminal trial may give the appearance that the Biden campaign and administration are interested in seeing a conviction. The jury has been instructed not to consume media about the case, but has not been sequestered.

Actor and Trump-hater Robert De Niro arrived in a Covid-era facemask to slam the former president and to claim that democracy would die under a second term in office, though it reportedly did not die during his first term. De Niro focused his remarks on the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021, which occurred more than three years ago during the congressional certification of votes for then-presidential elect Joe Biden. 

De Niro also invoked the terrorist attack on New York on September 11, 2001, claiming that at the time "we vowed we'd never allow terrorists." His implication was that in some way Trump, who was president at the time of the 2021 riot, was a terrorist.

Biden, the White House stated, intends to address the verdict in the case either way. He intends to make those statements from the White House to "show his statement isn't political," Politico reports. Biden would likely use a conviction to claim that Trump is unfit for office and per Politico may use the moniker "convicted felon Donald Trump" in campaign advertising if a conviction is secured.