Kayleigh McEnany questions DOJ's independence after New York Times reveals Biden's wish for AG to prosecute Trump just prior to multiple indictments

Kailey McEnany questioned the timing of the two federal indictments handed down by Biden’s Department of Justice, coming months after a New York Times article said Biden wanted Attorney General Merrick Garland to take "decisive action" against 2024 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump. She made the comments on Monday’s episode of Fox News’ Outnumbered.

McEnany noted a New York Times piece from early spring, which stated that Biden told close advisors that "Mr. Trump posed a threat to democracy, and should be prosecuted for his role in the events of January 6," the outlet reported.

"According to two people familiar with his comments, he also told confidants that he wanted Attorney General Merrick Garland to stop acting like a ponderous judge and to take decisive action."

McEnany said the article was absent any "assertion that Biden told this to Merrick Garland—but somehow this ended up on the pages of the New York Times."

The article was published on March 31, coming after Trump was indicted for the first time by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on charges of "falsifying business records." Hillary Clinton faced the same charge for classifying as legal fees monies paid to her attorneys that were used to fund the creation of the now-debunked Steele Dossier, which she used to try to implicate Trump in a Russia collusion election scheme in 2016. For this, she was fined $8,000. Trump faces multiple decades in prison.

In the months that followed the Manhattan indictment, two federal indictments were dropped against Trump. Trump has pled not guilty to all charges.

"So my question if I’m a reporter, and back when I was press secretary I used to give the press assignments… I would have assigned the press, pursue this lead. This is your own reporting. This is the New York Times who loves to brag when their reporting is right," she said.

McEnany urged members of the press who will be part of the gaggle aboard Air Force One this afternoon to ask "is this truly [Joe Biden’s] view, and was this ever communicated to Merrick Garland?" 

The New York Times editorial board, after Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was raided by the FBI in August of 2022, urged for Garland to indict Trump, saying "If Attorney General Merrick Garland and his staff conclude that there is sufficient evidence to establish Mr. Trump’s guilt on a serious charge in a court of law, then they must seek an indictment too."

"If Mr. Garland decides to pursue prosecution, a message that the Justice Department must send early and often is that even if Mr. Trump genuinely believed, as he claimed, that the election had been marred by fraud, his schemes to interfere in the certification of the vote would still be crimes. And even though Mr. Trump’s efforts failed, these efforts would still be crimes. More than 850 other Americans have already been charged with crimes for their roles in the Capitol attack. Well-meaning intentions did not shield them from the consequences of their actions. It would be unjust if Mr. Trump, the man who inspired them, faced no consequences."

The New York Times said Trump committed an "unprecedented assault on the integrity of American democracy," which they say "requires a criminal investigation." They alleged that "the disturbing details of his post-election misfeasance, meticulously assembled by the Jan. 6 committee, leave little doubt that Mr. Trump sought to subvert the Constitution and overturn the will of the American people."

Trump has now been charged by Biden’s Department of Justice twice, once on charges stemming from the Mar-a-Lago raid, and another for "conspiracy" charges in relation to alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.