WASHINGTON — White House chief of staff Ron Klain on Sunday said Attorney General Merrick Garland, not President Joe Biden, will make decisions on prosecutions in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and in other cases.
Klain was responding to a New York Times report this weekend that Biden told his inner circle last year that former President Donald Trump should be prosecuted. The Times cited people familiar with the comments.
Klain said on ABC’s “This Week” he has never heard Biden “advocate the prosecution of any person.” Only Richard Nixon and Trump believed those decisions should be made in the Oval Office, he said.
“The president has confidence in the attorney general to make those decisions,” Klain said on the show.
Klain also said no one at the White House or the president have had contact with the Department of Justice on Hunter Biden, who has faced scrutiny for his overseas business dealings.
“Of course the president is confident that his son didn’t break the law,” Klain said, but that’s “something no one at the White House has any involvement in.”
Asked whether ethical lines were crossed, Klain said “the president is confident his family did the right thing,” but added that Hunter Biden’s activities “don’t involve the president.”
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, speaking on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” alleged that intelligence agencies and the media covered up the story of Hunter Biden’s business ties in countries such as China and Ukraine.
“This is the most corruption I’ve seen in the United States government,” Johnson said. “This is corruption at the highest level.”
Johnson and fellow Sen. Chuck Grassley released a report on Hunter Biden in September 2020 shortly before the election. While Republicans said the report raised concerns including conflicts of interest, the findings didn’t disclose any impact on policy or prove wrongdoing.
