In the days since the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, the private club and home of former President Donald J. Trump in Florida, the White House has made it a point to keep quiet.
President Biden was not notified of the search Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this week. And a White House official said Mr. Biden had received no warning that Attorney General Merrick B. Garland would speak with reporters on Thursday, when he announced the Justice Department’s intention to unseal the search warrant.
The White House’s approach is part of a concerted effort to ensure the law enforcement operation is not viewed as partisan.
Mr. Biden pledged during his presidential campaign to restore the independence of the Justice Department, which Mr. Trump was trying to use for political gain. Mr. Biden’s team is also aware that an opinion on the FBI’s search would most likely fuel allegations by Mr. Trump’s allies that the president was using the Justice Department to target a likely adversary in the presidential election of Mr. to weaken by 2024.
“President Biden has been very clear from before he was elected president and during his tenure that the Justice Department is conducting its investigations independently,” Ms Jean-Pierre said this week. “He believes in the rule of law.”
Still, top Republicans and prominent conservatives have tried to attack federal law enforcement as biased against the former president. A number of House Republicans, including Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, hastened to portray the search as politically motivated. Mr Trump has also said the search is part of a “witch hunt.”
But in recent days, Senate Republicans, including minority leader Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, have softened their tone while still pushing for more information about the evidence that led authorities to seek a warrant, which was approved by a federal judge.
The investigation focuses on whether Mr. Trump erroneously took sensitive materials from the White House and then failed to return all of them — including classified documents — when the National Archives and the Department of Justice demanded him.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Garland have had to come under increasing pressure since taking office to continue another investigation: the one into the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol bombing.
But the White House knows that any comment from Mr. Biden would fuel accusations that the Justice Department’s investigation is politically motivated. In October, after the president said those serving subpoenas to appear before the Jan. 6 commission should be prosecuted, he was to be prosecuted.
“I should have chosen my words more wisely,” he said.
