Live updates: Trump indicted, charged with 7 counts

The White House is declining to comment on reports that former President Donald Trump has been indicted.

White House spokesperson Ian Sams declined to comment, referring questions to the Justice Department — which he noted: “conducts its criminal investigations independently.” 

The White House has repeatedly declined to weigh in on ongoing investigations and legal actions, especially those coming out of the Department of Justice, whose independence President Joe Biden has upheld.

Biden upheld that very notion earlier on Thursday when he was asked what he would tell Americans to convince them that they should trust the independence and fairness of the Justice Department.

“Because you’ll notice, I have never once, not one single time, suggested to the Justice Department what they should do or not do on whether to bring any charges or not bring any charges. I’m honest,” Biden said.

More on Biden’s reaction: The last time Trump was indicted, Biden left the White House the next day intent on going about his schedule without wading into the matter. 

As Trump is indicted a second time, Biden is planning to do the same thing — an intentional demonstration of calm and normalcy amid the continuing chaos of his predecessor.  

He’ll probably get asked about the indictment throughout the day as he leaves the White House to visit sites in North Carolina. But there is little to suggest he’ll weigh in on the substance of the case. 

That’s because he and his aides believe doing so would only lend grist to Trump’s claims he’s the victim of a political “witch hunt.” Biden doesn’t want to be baited into providing Trump any fuel for his allegations, people familiar with his thinking say. And he remains firmly of the belief that sitting presidents should not comment on legal matters. 

Those dynamics — already in play when Trump was indicted in New York — are only amplified now Trump has been handed a federal indictment by Biden’s Justice Department. It’s a situation Biden and his team know they must handle carefully.