Biden believes Trump should be prosecuted, New York Times reports

April 2 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden privately told members of his inner circle late last year that he believes former President Donald Trump should be prosecuted, according to reporting published Saturday by The New York Times.

Biden told advisers he thinks Trump's role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol indicates that his predecessor is a threat to democracy, The New York Times reported.

He also reportedly expressed frustration with Attorney General Merrick Garland, and wished Garland would act more aggressively and decisively in prosecuting the people involved in the insurrection.

The Times interviewed more than a dozen people, including administration officials and private confidants, all of whom asked the newspaper for anonymity.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement to The Independent that Biden "is immensely proud of the attorney general's service in this administration and has no role in investigative priorities or decisions."

The White House did not respond to questions from the Washington Examiner seeking to confirm the report in The New York Times.

Kimberly Atkins Stohr, a columnist for the Boston Globe, tweeted: "Narrator: The president chose a ponderous judge to be the nation's top federal prosecutor."

The revelation came two days after Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kusher, spent more than six hours testifying before the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot. Kushner had served as a top White House adviser during Trump's administration.

Committee member Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., told MSNBC afterward that it was "really valuable for us to have the opportunity to speak with him."

"(Kushner) was able to voluntarily provide information to us to verify, substantiate, provide his own take on this different reporting," Luria said.

Earlier this week, the National Archives and Records Administration turned over the logs documenting Trump's calls on Jan. 6 and showed a nearly eight-hour window -- between around 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. -- during which Trump apparently didn't make or receive any official calls. Investigators are now looking into whether Trump may have used alternative, untraceable phones to avoid establishing a record of his correspondence that day.