White House press sec dodges question on Trump’s potential arrest

"What does the White House make of former President Trump calling on his supporters to protest his potential indictment," the reporter asked.

Jean-Pierre said that this was an ongoing investigation and "we do not comment on any ongoing investigations from here."

"We’ve been very consistent on that, so certainly, I’m not going to break that — kind of break our protocol here, so I won’t comment from here."

The reporter noted that he was not asking about the potential indictment itself, but rather Trump’s calls for his supporters to protest, to which Jean-Pierre responded, "the President has been very clear when it comes to Americans who want to protest. They should do it peacefully, and that is something that is incredibly important that the President has always continued to say, but I don’t want to get into hypotheticals from here, so I’ll just leave it there."

In regards to House Republicans requesting to speak with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg about his ongoing investigation. of Trump, the reporter asked, "is that the view of the White House of proper use of federal taxpayer dollars to investigate or try to find out what a local prosecutor" is doing?

"Again, I’m just not going to speak" on that, said Jean-Pierre, adding that the question "is an underlying connection to the investigation."

The comments come ahead of the potential arrest of Trump this week in connection to potential "hush money" payments to porn star Stormy Daniels through his attorney, Michael Cohen, in 2016. Investigators say the payments were a breach of campaign finance laws.

On Saturday, Trump announced that he anticipates being arrested on Tuesday.