(CNN) Top law enforcement officials on Wednesday pushed back on comments from President Donald Trump suggesting the prosecution of a Chinese telecommunications executive could be used as leverage in trade negotiations.

"What I do, what we do at the Justice Department, is law enforcement. We don't do trade," assistant Attorney General John Demers, the department's top national security official, said at a Senate hearing.

"We follow the facts and we vindicate violations of US law. That's what we're doing when we bring those cases, and I think it's very important for other countries to understand that we are not a tool of trade when we bring the cases," he added.

Demers said Wednesday that if Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou is extradited from Canada, as the US has requested, "our criminal case will continue," he said. He declined to comment further on the case.

In an interview with Reuters Tuesday, Trump said he would intervene in the case against Meng if it proved beneficial in securing a trade deal that has splintered relations between the two countries in recent months.

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