Under President Donald Trump’s tenure, critics charge that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been politicized to benefit the president’s friends and target his political opponents.
The allegations are fueled in part by a federal prosecutor’s claim that high-ranking officials at the DOJ have interfered in politically charged cases to help the president’s allies.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is running with a promise to let officials at the department do their job without political pressure.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris was asked during an appearance on ABC’s “The View” Monday about her previous support for the prosecution of Trump, and whether that is still her position.
Harris said, “First of all, there is a huge difference between Joe Biden and my perspective on the Department of Justice and the Donald Trump [perspective].”
“We will not have a Department of Justice that conducts itself as the personal lawyer of the president, such as the way that Donald Trump has done,” she continued.
Harris added if voters send Biden to the White House, the attorney general would be “someone who will be independent” and “will make the decisions based on whatever — in their discretion with the facts and evidence they have — is appropriate without any interference from the White House.”
Watch the video below:
“We will not have a Department of Justice that conducts itself as the personal lawyer of the president such as the way that Donald Trump has done,” Sen. @KamalaHarris tells @TheView. “Whoever leads the Department of Justice if we win, is someone who will be independent.” pic.twitter.com/nuEm9MpJ18
— The View (@TheView) October 26, 2020
During a campaign event in North Carolina in September, Biden accused the Trump administration of being “the most corrupt administration in modern American history.”
“The Justice Department has turned into the president’s private law firm … It’s become the Department of Trump, and that’s wrong,” he added.
Biden has vowed to let officials at the department conduct their work without political interference, and that he would not push for prosecution of Trump.
But he also would not step in to quash one either, even though he believes it would be “probably not very … good for democracy.”
“I will not interfere with the Justice Department’s judgment of whether or not they think they should pursue the prosecution of anyone that they think has violated the law,” Biden told NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
Speaking specifically about a potential Trump prosecution, he said, “In terms of saying, ‘I think the president violated the law. I think the president did this, therefore, go on and prosecute him’ — I will not do that.”
During the Democratic presidential primary last year, Harris said of a potential Trump prosecution, “I believe that [the Justice Department] would have no choice.”