So far this week, President Joe Biden has announced new steps to conserve land and water. He met with the cast of “Ted Lasso” to discuss mental health and released a 500-page report on the economy.

Missing was any acknowledgment of the drama that has transfixed much of Washington: the possible criminal indictment of his past and potentially future rival, Donald Trump.

There’s no blueprint for what a sitting president should do when a predecessor is charged with a crime — something that’s never happened in the nation’s history. Biden’s approach, for now, has been to keep silent and avoid a scrum that threatens to pull him in, Democratic strategists and people close to the White House said.