Biden avoids commenting on Trump's indictment

US President Joe Biden on Friday refused to comment on the indictment of former President Donald Trump, who has accused him of carrying out a "political persecution" against him. At the White House and before boarding Marine One, the presidential helicopter, on its way to Mississippi, the president was asked insistently by the press, but refused to answer. 

"I have no comment on Trump," he said, in his first direct reference to the issue after a New York grand jury voted Thursday afternoon to indict Trump in a case related to the payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence. 

Trump became the first former US president to be indicted for criminal offences. After learning the news, the Republican exmandatario said in a statement that this is another example of the "witch hunt" to which he is subjected and accused Biden's Democratic Party of "using justice as a weapon to punish a political opponent". "It's going to turn massively against Joe Biden," he said.  

The Stormy Daniels case is not the only prosecution in which the controversial 76-year-old Trump has been embroiled, and in fact he has several open cases for political, economic and sexual offences. 

Trump, who in November announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, could see his political goals severely hampered if some of these pending cases prosper.