Jill Biden's 'work husband' runs for cover as privilege protection crumbles
Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said in a press release Tuesday that Bernal was refusing to appear on June 26 for a transcribed interview, as part of the committee's investigation into the Biden cover-up, and also the potentially unauthorized use of autopen for executive actions and pardons.
"Now that the White House has waived executive privilege, it's abundantly clear that Anthony Bernal – Jill Biden's so-called 'work husband' – never intended to be transparent about Joe Biden's cognitive decline and the ensuing cover-up," Comer said. "With no privilege left to hide behind, Mr. Bernal is now running scared, desperate to bury the truth. The American people deserve answers and accountability, and the Oversight Committee will not tolerate this obstruction."
The chairman added that if Bernal does not wish to come on his own, he will issue a subpoena to compel Bernal to provide testimony before the committee.
House Republicans Inch Closer To Answers As Former Biden Advisors Lose Executive Privilege Shield
Letters obtained by Fox News Digital from a source familiar with the matter show the Trump administration will not allow the people of interest in Comer's probe to use their past White House work as a legal shield.
Read On The Fox News App
Deputy Counsel to the President Gary Lawkowski sent the letters to former Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain, former senior advisors Anita Dunn, Steve Ricchetti, Mike Donilon, Annie Tomasini, Bruce Reed, Ashley Williams and Bernal.
"In light of the unique and extraordinary nature of the matters under investigation, President Trump has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the national interest, and therefore is not justified, with respect to particular subjects within the purview of the House Oversight Committee," the letters said. "Those subjects include your assessment of former President Biden's fitness for the office of the President and your knowledge of who exercised executive powers during his administration."
Top Biden Officials Summoned To Testify About Alleged Cover-up Of Former President's Mental Fitness
Congressional Republicans and the White House are investigating whether the senior Biden aides in question played any role in keeping concerns about the former president's mental acuity shielded from the public eye and even from lower-level White House staffers.
"Just yesterday, we heard from our first witness, Neera Tanden, the former Staff Secretary who controlled the Biden autopen," Comer said Wednesday. "Ms. Tanden testified that she had minimal interaction with President Biden, despite wielding tremendous authority. She explained that to obtain approval for autopen signatures, she would send decision memos to members of the President's inner circle and had no visibility of what occurred between sending the memo and receiving it back with approval.
"Her testimony raises serious questions about who was really calling the shots in the Biden White House amid the President's obvious decline," Comer continued. "We will continue to pursue the truth for the American people."
House Gop Secures Four Key Witnesses In Biden Mental-decline Probe As Former Aides Agree To Talk
Bernal's team previously confirmed he would appear for a transcribed interview on June 26, 2025, according to Comer's office. But yesterday, the White House counsel's office notified Bernal that it was waiving executive privilege regarding the Oversight Committee's investigation.
Bernal's legal team then told the committee he would no longer appear for the interview.
Comer's team said in the press release that during the last Congress, the chairman subpoenaed three key White House aides, including Bernal, who allegedly ran interference for Biden to cover up his decline.
Despite the subpoenas, the White House under Biden allegedly obstructed the committee's investigation by refusing to make the aides available for interviews or depositions.
Fox News Digital's Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.Original article source: Jill Biden's 'work husband' runs for cover as privilege protection crumbles
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Democratic Congressman Suozzi's $50,000 stock sale took advantage of a loophole in Congressional disclosure rules
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) sold up to $50,000 of Global Industrial Co. stock in March 2025, despite never publicly disclosing ownership due to a now-closed loophole in federal law. Suozzi received the stock as unvested compensation in 2023 and did not report it, citing then-current disclosure rules. He has a history of delayed or missing disclosures and past violations of the STOCK Act. WASHINGTON — When Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) sold a chunk of his personal stock holdings two days before President Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariff announcements in April, the transaction appeared to be yet another routine financial move for someone Congress itself once investigated for his often opaque trading habits. But Suozzi's March 31 sale of up to $50,000 worth of Global Industrial Co. stock is notable for what it's not: The congressman has never publicly disclosed owning the stock, prompting the question of how a federal lawmaker can sell a security he doesn't appear to own in the first place. The answer? Suozzi simply didn't disclose his Global Industrial Co. stock, which he obtained more than two years ago, because of an apparent loophole in federal law—a loophole recently closed by Congress to address stock situations precisely like Suozzi's, according to a Fortune review of federal documents and interviews with government officials. Suozzi's mysterious stock trade comes at a time when a bipartisan coalition in Congress are agitating to ban federal lawmakers from trading stocks altogether. They cite what they regard as abuses of a financial disclosure law known as the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act. Suozzi has violated the STOCK Act's disclosure provision on four different occasions earlier this decade, according to media reports. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and even President Donald Trump have offered support, in principle, for a congressional stock-trade ban. Suozzi's congressional office told Fortune the congressman has done nothing wrong by not yet reporting his Global Industrial Co. stock ownership, arguing that he followed congressional rules that applied to him when he last filed mandatory personal financial disclosures in 2024. 'Congressman Suozzi has complied completely with the rules of House Ethics,' Suozzi Chief of Staff Matt Fried told Fortune. Suozzi's latest stock saga began in June 2023. That month, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records, Suozzi received $50,000 worth of restricted, unvested stock in Global Industrial Co., while serving as a 'non-management director' of the company after leaving Congress earlier that year following a failed campaign for governor of New York. Later that year, Suozzi decided to run in a special election for New York's 3rd Congressional District seat, which Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) vacated after the House of Representatives expelled him amid a swathe of federal criminal charges on which he was later csentenced to more than seven years in prisononvicted. When Suozzi filed a mandatory candidate financial disclosure report on January 12, 2024, he did not disclose his stock in Global Industries Co. The company markets industrial and repair products through various e-commerce websites. Nor did he disclose it in two subsequent financial disclosures, in August and September of 2024, after he won his congressional seat in February 2024. The three financial disclosures applied to Suozzi's personal financial activity during 2023. Fried explained that Suozzi's Global Industries Co. stock 'had not vested and had no value' when Suozzi filed his personal financial disclosure in January 2024. Because House Committee on Ethics financial disclosure rules at the time did not specifically address unvested stock holdings, Suozzi did not disclose his Global Industries Co. stock holding, Fried said. However, Suozzi's Global Industries Co. stock did vest at some point between Suozzi's financial disclosure on Jan. 12, 2024, and his swearing-in to Congress on Feb. 28, 2024, Fried said. The Global Industries Co. stock 'will be reflected' when Suozzi discloses his 2024 personal financial activity in a document that must be filed by August 2025, Fried said. In May, Suozzi requested, and received, a 90-day extension to file it., Fried said. When the House Committee on Ethics released updated disclosure rules earlier this year, it included new language directly addressing the kind of situation Suozzi finds himself in, although it doesn't appear to apply to members of Congress retroactively. 'You are required to disclose for yourself, your spouse, or dependent children your participation in a restricted stock plan if the value of stock was more than $1,000 at the end of the reporting period or earned more than $200 in income during the reporting period,' the House guidance reads. 'Provide the name of the unvested stock (vested stock should be disclosed on a separate line item), value, type of income and amount.' Tom Rust, chief counsel for the House Committee on Ethics, declined to comment. 'These disclosure requirements are important because they're the only sort of ethical obligation members of Congress have been willing to impose on themselves,' said Walter Shaub, a former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. 'If they'd finally pass the long-languishing stock trading ban to uphold the bedrock ethical principle of avoiding conflicts of interest, they wouldn't have to worry about these disclosures.' In 2021, NPR reported — citing research from the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group — that Suozzi failed to properly disclose about 300 financial transactions. Separately, Business Insider reported that Suozzi — on three different occasions in March, May and December of 2022 — violated the STOCK Act by waiting months or years past a federal deadline to disclose dozens of additional stock trades. 'Quite frankly, we have a lot going on in Congress. I have a lot of other stuff going on. And it's just not—ethics is a big priority for me. But the—some of the formalities are not necessarily something I make a priority of,' Suozzi told the independent Office of Congressional Ethics in 2022 during its investigation of his stock trading practices, while noting a financial adviser directed his trades. The Office of Congressional Ethics's board unanimously referred Suozzi to the House Committee on Ethics, writing that there was 'substantial reason to believe' Suozzi had failed to properly disclose hundreds of personal stock trades. But the House Committee on Ethics, which members of Congress themselves constitute, unanimously concluded in July 2022 that there 'was not clear evidence' that Suozzi committed a 'knowing or willful' violation of the STOCK Act. The committee declined to penalize him. In his second stint as a congressman, Suozzi is a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, which is responsible for tax-writing, revenue-raising and other core government financial functions. He sits on the committee's oversight and tax subcommittees, as well. Fried, Suozzi's chief of staff, said Suozzi backs the Bipartisan Restoring Faith in Government Act of 2025, one of several pending bills that, if passed, would ban or otherwise limit members of Congress from trading individual stocks. On May 5, Suozzi became a co-sponsor of the bill, which is also sponsored by 10 other ideologically diverse lawmakers ranging from Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). When Suozzi sold his Global Industrial Co. stock on March 31, it was trading around $22 per share — down from about $27 a share when he obtained it in June 2023. It's the only stock trade Suozzi has reported making this year after reporting making just a handful last year. 'The congressman has made a point of not buying or selling stock since his new term began in January,' Fried said. 'This was his only trade. It was done to raise money to pay fees to his financial adviser. This stock was sold because it was the only stock in which he had no capital gains.' Dave Levinthal is a Washington, D.C.-based investigative journalist. Dave previously worked as editor-in-chief of Raw Story, deputy editor at Business Insider and as an editor or reporter at the Center for Public Integrity, Politico, OpenSecrets and the Dallas Morning News. He has also written for The Atlantic, TIME, Rolling Stone, Columbia Journalism Review, the Daily Beast, NOTUS and The Ankler. This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Catholic Bishops Trash Trump's Big Beautiful Bill Passing
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has spoken out against President Donald Trump's massive tax and spending package, saying it contains "unconscionable cuts to... programs that protect God's creation." Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio issued the statement after the budget bill passed Congress and headed to the President's desk. The bill is set to lead to deep cuts in Medicaid and food stamps, and give $170 billion to Trump's immigration policies. Catholics are not the only faith group to speak out against this bill, with leaders from other Christian denominations as well as Jewish leaders voicing their opposition. The White House has been contacted for comment via email. Archbishop Timothy Broglio conducts an Easter Sunday Mass at Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, Sunday, April 12, 2020. Archbishop Timothy Broglio conducts an Easter Sunday Mass at Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, Sunday, April 12, 2020. Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo Why It Matters The budget bill will cause $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, shutter rural hospitals, and give $45 billion towards the building of detention centers for immigrants. The bill passed through Congress despite opposition from many Americans, with a number of surveys suggesting more than half of those polled were against it. Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, has also called for compassionate treatment of immigrants and an end to global conflicts, as the Trump administration has pushed ahead with its hardline immigration policy. What To Know While the USCCB had backed elements of the bill "that promote the dignity of human life and support parental choice in education," it had urged lawmakers in a letter ahead of the vote "to make drastic changes to the provisions that will harm the poor and vulnerable." Those changes were not made in either the Senate or House versions of the bill, prompting Archbishop Broglio to conclude: "The bill, as passed, will cause the greatest harm to those who are especially vulnerable in our society." Vice President JD Vance, who speaks openly about his Catholic faith, cast the tie-breaking vote for the bill in the Senate. He posted to X (formerly Twitter) about the bill: "Now we've delivered big tax cuts and the resources necessary to secure the border. Promises made, promises kept!" In a letter sent to the Senate ahead of the vote, a coalition of Christian leaders warned that money put aside for mass deportations would "separate US families, harm US-citizen and immigrant children, and sow chaos in local communities." Jewish leaders have also spoken out against the bill, with Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T'ruah, a human rights advocacy group, saying: "Today, we see the sins of Sodom being repeated in this bill, which is written from a place of arrogance, cruelty, and selfishness. We fear that, like Sodom, these sins will lead to our destruction." Demonstrators protest prior to a news conference regarding the pending passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act at the Capitol, Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in Washington. Demonstrators protest prior to a news conference regarding the pending passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act at the Capitol, Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in Washington. Rod Lamkey, Jr./AP Photo What People Are Saying Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio said: "The final version of the bill includes unconscionable cuts to healthcare and food assistance, tax cuts that increase inequality, immigration provisions that harm families and children, and cuts to programs that protect God's creation." Rabbi Jill Jacobs, in an open letter, wrote: "This disaster of a bill threatens all Americans. This is no Big Beautiful Bill but rather a Big Bad Betrayal, with devastating costs to human life, freedom, and officials have betrayed their constituents. We condemn the Members of Congress who voted for this disastrous budget." President Donald Trump on Truth Social: "The Republicans in the House of Representatives have just passed the "ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL ACT." Our Party is UNITED like never before and, our Country is "HOT."...Together, we can do things that were not even imagined possible less than one year ago. We will keep working, and winning — CONGRATULATIONS AMERICA!" What Happens Next Trump is set to sign the bill at 4 p.m. ET on Friday.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump criticized for using antisemitic slur in Iowa speech
Jewish advocacy groups slammed President Donald Trump for using an anti-Semitic descriptor on Thursday during his Iowa speech celebrating the passage of his spending bill. Trump used the term "Shylocks," which evokes a centuries-old antisemitic trope about Jewish people and greed, to talk about the tax changes in the bill. "No death tax, no estate tax, no going to the banks and bar exam from, in some cases a fine banker, and in some cases Shylocks and bad people, but they took away a lot of family. They destroyed a lot of families, but we did the opposite," he told the crowd. Shylock is a reference to the name of the Jewish moneylender and villain in playwright William Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" who demands a "pound of flesh" from protagonist Antonio. MORE: Trump admin live updates The Anti-Defamation League on Friday morning criticized the president, reiterating that the term is "extremely offensive and dangerous." "President Trump's use of the term is very troubling and irresponsible. It underscores how lies and conspiracies about Jews remain deeply entrenched in our country. Words from our leaders matter and we expect more from the President of the United States," the organization said in a statement. Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, also condemned Trump's comments, saying in a statement it was one of "the most quintessential antisemitic stereotypes." "This is not an accident. It follows years in which Trump has normalized antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories -- and it's deeply dangerous," she added. Trump was asked about his use of the word after he returned to Washington D.C. early Friday. The president, who has made combating antisemitism in schools a priority in his administration, claimed he has "never heard it that way." "To me, Shylock is somebody that's a money lender at high rates. I've never heard it that way. You view it differently than me. I've never heard that," Trump claimed. MORE: Video Concerns grow over the rise in incidents of antisemitic hate crimes This is not the first time that an executive branch member came under fire for using the term. In 2014, then-Vice President Joe Biden took heat for using the term during the 40th anniversary celebration of the Legal Services Corporation, referring to predatory bankers as "these Shylocks who took advantage of these women and men while overseas." Biden apologized after then-Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman criticized the use of the term. "He's correct, it was a poor choice of words, particularly as he said coming from 'someone as friendly to the Jewish community and open and tolerant an individual as is Vice President Joe Biden.' He's right," Biden said in a statement. ABC News' Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.
