White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dodged a question Monday about why President Donald Trump chastised the Justice Department last week for prosecuting two Republican congressmen.
“Is the President really trying to suggest — or outright saying — that the Justice Department shouldn’t be investigating or prosecuting allies of the President, if it might hurt his party’s political chances?” ABC News’ Jonathan Karl asked Sanders at a press briefing Monday?
“Certainly, the President thinks that no one is above the law,” Sanders said, before changing the topic.
“What he would like to see is a fair playing field,” she said. “That there also be— There have been a number of concerns raised about individuals both in the FBI and the department of justice that have been ignored and we would like to see those looked at as well.”
“But those two prosecutions,” Karl pressed. “He doesn’t want to go forward, because they’re his allies?”
Sanders began to say that the couldn’t “weigh in right now on an active investigation.”
“He did,” Karl interrupted.
Sanders continued: “But I can tell you that the President doesn’t think anyone is above the law, and we’re simply stating that there should be cause for concern of a number of things that have happened both in the Department of Justice and the FBI that we would like to see those looked at as well.”
Trump fired off a tweet last week questioning why the Justice Department would indict Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and Chris Collins (R-NY) “just ahead of the Mid-Terms.”
“Two easy wins now in doubt,” he wrote.
Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018
Watch below:
Asked about Trump's politicization of prosecutions against GOP congressmen, Sanders dodges. pic.twitter.com/fOsijBUo98
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) September 10, 2018
