Former top aide to Jill Biden subpoenaed in House GOP's Biden age probe

CBS News

2 days ago

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have subpoenaed Anthony Bernal, a senior aide to former first lady Jill Biden, as part of their rapidly expanding investigation into former President Joe Biden's mental fitness while in office.
The subpoena — signed Thursday by Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican Oversight chairman — requires Bernal to appear for a deposition on July 16. It came after several weeks of back-and-forth with Bernal's lawyer over the timing of a voluntary interview, which Comer says ended with Bernal withdrawing from an interview scheduled for Thursday.
"Given your close connection with both former President Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden, the Committee sought to understand if you contributed to an effort to hide former President Biden's fitness to serve from the American people," a cover letter for the subpoena reads. "To avoid any further delays, your appearance before the Committee is now compelled."
Bernal is the second former Biden staffer to be subpoenaed by the committee and unlikely to be the last. The committee this week heard voluntary testimony from Neera Tanden, a former director of Biden's domestic policy counsel, and is intent on securing interviews with several other members of Biden's inner circle as part of its investigation.
CBS News has reached out to Bernal's attorney for comment.
Comer has also subpoenaed Dr. Kevin O'Connor, who served as Biden's physician at the White House. O'Connor will testify before the committee on July 9. The committee said it compelled O'Connor to testify after his lawyers said he could not appear for an interview, arguing it would violate local laws and ethical rules against doctors disclosing confidential medical information.
It's all part of a Republican effort, supported by President Trump, to investigate the last occupant of the Oval Office. Mr. Trump himself has ordered White House lawyers and the Justice Department to investigate Biden's aides, questioning the legitimacy of his alleged use of the autopen to sign pardons and other documents. Mr. Trump has long suggested that the use of autopen could nullify some of Biden's executive actions, an idea some legal experts have pushed back on.
In a statement earlier this month, Biden called the attacks "ridiculous and false," and said, "I made the decisions during my presidency," including on pardons.
Boosting the GOP investigation, Mr. Trump has waived executive privilege for eight former Biden administration officials to testify to Congress, including Bernal, a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and insisted on anonymity told the Associated Press. Executive privilege is a legal doctrine that allows presidents to keep certain internal communications secret.
With the privilege lifted, former staffers are free to discuss their interactions with Biden while he was president.
Comer said Bernal's attorneys had initially offered to do a transcribed interview on Thursday, but then on Wednesday, his lawyers told the committee he was not willing to appear voluntarily on that date. Comer accused him of "running scared" after the privilege was waived.
In addition to Bernal, executive privilege has been waived for Biden White House senior advisers Mike Donilon and Anita Dunn, former White House chief of staff Ron Klain, former deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, former counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, former deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini and a former assistant to the president, Ashley Williams. Comer is seeking interviews with all of them.
Democrats have dismissed the inquiry into Biden's mental state as a partisan exercise that distracts from other pressing issues.
Rep. Wesley Bell, a Missouri Democrat who sits on the Oversight committee, said after the interview with Tanden that it "was an extraordinary waste of time" and produced "no new evidence."
Bell said lawmakers should focus on issues like the costs of food, housing and potential changes to healthcare policy rather than "dig up some kind of post-impeachment, or whatever we're doing here."
The unfolding investigation has grown in scope in recent weeks, as new reporting emerges about Biden's final year in office — including concerns about his age and the circumstances of his decision not to run for reelection. Biden has long denied that his cognitive abilities had faded while in office.
The probe could have significant implications for politics and policy. Republican lawmakers have argued that any executive actions or policies enacted through the autopen procedure could be found invalid if Biden were somehow incapacitated or not of a sound state of mind while in office.
Mr. Trump and his allies have claimed, without evidence, that Biden was not aware of the actions his administration had taken on a range of issues, including on pardons, environmental policy and labor rights, among other issues.
A move to reverse such executive actions, which would almost certainly face legal scrutiny and a battle in the courts, could impact scores of executive orders taken throughout Biden's term.
"Let this subpoena send a clear message to Biden's inner circle: We will stop at nothing to expose the truth about Joe Biden's decline (and) unauthorized use of the autopen," Comer wrote on social media.