Latest news with #BidenCoverUp
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Jill Biden's 'work husband' runs for cover as privilege protection crumbles
Anthony Bernal, the former advisor to former first lady Jill Biden, is refusing to appear before the House Oversight Committee to be questioned about the alleged cover-up of former President Joe Biden's mental decline. 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 article source: Jill Biden's 'work husband' runs for cover as privilege protection crumbles
Fox News
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Jill Biden's 'work husband' runs for cover as privilege protection crumbles
Anthony Bernal, the former advisor to former first lady Jill Biden, is refusing to appear before the House Oversight Committee to be questioned about the alleged cover-up of former President Joe Biden's mental decline. 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. 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. 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." 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." 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
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off Wednesday
Senate Republicans are gearing up for the first full-scale congressional hearing into the alleged cover-up of former President Joe Biden's cognitive decline. Senators John Cornyn, R-Texas., and Eric Schmitt, R-Mo. will co-chair a Senate Judiciary Hearing Wednesday that delves into "what exactly went on" during Biden's term and why the constitutional power to remove him from office wasn't triggered. Cornyn said on the Senate floor that one of the main goals of the hearing was to shine a light on what happened behind the scenes during landmark moments of Biden's presidency, "from the Biden border crisis to the disastrous results from the withdrawal in Afghanistan. "And it's now clear that for many months — no one knows exactly how long — the president was simply not up to the task," he said. "Whoever happened to be making those decisions and carrying out the duties of the Office of President was not somebody who was authorized by the Constitution or by a vote of the American people." Cornyn and Schmitt's hearing, first announced late last month, will be held after the release of the book "Original Sin" by CNN host Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, which alleges the Biden White House was trying to control the narrative about the former president's health and that his allies worked to cover up his decline. The hearing, "Unfit to Serve: How the Biden Cover-Up Endangered America and Undermined the Constitution," features a trio of witnesses called by the Senate Republican duo who served during President Donald Trump's first term and during the Reagan and Bush years. Among the Republicans' witnesses are Theodore Wold, who formerly served as acting assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy at the Justice Department and deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy during the Trump administration; Sean Spicer, former White House press secretary and communications director; and John Harrison, a legal scholar from the University of Virginia School of Law who previously served during former the Reagan and Bush administrations. Wold and Harrison told Fox News Digital their testimony would focus on Biden's alleged usage of an autopen, a device that is used to automatically mimic a person's signature, typically used signing of numerous documents, and how the usage of the device may have acted as a smokescreen to prevent the triggering of the 25th Amendment. Biden has rejected assertions by lawmakers and Trump that he habitually used an autopen. Trump recently ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an investigation into whether the former president's aides "abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden's cognitive decline." Spicer's testimony will focus on the media's treatment of Trump compared to Biden during their respective first terms and how some media outlets were allegedly "silent" when it came to signs of the ex-president's decline. Democrats on the panel did not call any witnesses. The top-ranking Democrat on the committee, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., contended that Cornyn and Schmitt were wasting the panel's time with their endeavor. "We have so many important topics to consider, and this is a totally political undertaking by several of my colleagues," he said. "It is a waste of the Senate Judiciary Committee's time."
Fox News
05-06-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Biden's personal doctor summoned as Republicans dig deeper into alleged cognitive decline cover-up
Former President Joe Biden's personal doctor is being subpoenaed to testify amid allegations of a cover-up of his cognitive decline during his term in the White House. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is compelling Dr. Kevin O'Connor to appear for a deposition on June 27. The subpoena is part of the investigation into the cover-up of Biden's cognitive decline and potentially unauthorized issuance of sweeping pardons and other executive actions. "No autopen was used in the signing of this subpoena," Comer wrote on X, referring to Biden's use of an autopen to exercise his presidential responsibilities. Comer recently requested O'Connor to voluntarily appear for a transcribed interview but the doctor refused, according to the subpoena. Previously, the White House blocked the doctor from appearing for a separate interview to discuss Biden's medical assessments and "involvement in the Biden family's influence peddling racket, but the Biden White House blocked his testimony," a committee news release states. "Among other subjects, the Committee expressed its interest in whether your financial relationship with the Biden family affected your assessment of former President Biden's physical and mental fitness to fulfill his duties as President," the subpoena states. "Given your connections with the Biden family,3 the Committee sought to understand if you contributed to an effort to hide former President Biden's fitness to serve from the American people." Biden's health and mental state were frequent concerns while he was in office, but have been heavily scrutinized following his departure from the White House after his recent prostate cancer diagnoses. He received clean bills of health while serving as president, according to O'Connor's annual reports on the president's state of health. O'Connor has overseen Biden's health since 2009 and built a close relationship with the president and his family, Fox News Digital previously reported. "I have never had a better commander than Joe Biden," O'Connor said in a profile interview with his alma mater, New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, when Biden served as vice president. "All politics aside, he approaches his craft with such honor. He's 100 percent 'family first.' He's 'genuinely genuine.'" He remained out of the spotlight during Biden's tenure until the spring of 2024, when speculation mounted among both conservatives and Democrats that the president's mental acuity was slipping, with pundits and the media subsequently demanding to hear directly from O'Connor on the state of Biden's health.
Fox News
03-06-2025
- Business
- Fox News
EXCLUSIVE: Comer hails DOJ's Biden probe as House investigation heats up
EXCLUSIVE: House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is welcoming the Trump administration's backup as he continues to probe the alleged "cover-up" of former President Joe Biden's cognitive decline. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating pardons granted by the Biden White House, specifically whether the ex-president "was competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of autopen or other means," according to Reuters. "The Trump DOJ is right to open a probe into the potential unauthorized use of autopen at the Biden White House for sweeping pardons and other executive actions," Comer told Fox News Digital. "Americans demand transparency and accountability about who was calling the shots at the White House." The Kentucky Republican launched a House Oversight Committee probe into the prior administration last month, requesting appearances and information from five former senior Biden aides, including his physician Kevin O'Connor. A source familiar with the matter previously told Fox News Digital that lawyers for all five former staffers were in communication with the committee, but Comer signaled that he would not rule out compelling their appearance if those talks fell through. "The House Oversight Committee is investigating the cover-up of President Biden's mental decline and will be talking soon with a large group of former administration and campaign officials, under subpoena if necessary. We welcome the DOJ's additional efforts to ensure accountability," Comer said. The DOJ declined to comment when reached by Fox News Digital. Republicans have unleashed a tidal wave of scrutiny on the previous Democratic White House as new reports – as well as old concerns previously dismissed by mainstream media – surface about Biden's mental state while in office and what lengths those closest to him took to allegedly hide it from others. It was considered all but taboo in Washington's political circles to discuss Biden's mental acuity until his disastrous debate against then-candidate Donald Trump in 2024. Since then, myriad accounts about the former president misremembering longtime allies or losing focus in meetings have flooded the media. It's brought new scrutiny on some of the unprecedentedly broad pardons he issued during his waning days in office, including for his son, Hunter Biden, despite previously saying he would not do so. Biden is also currently dealing with stage 4 prostate cancer, which he announced last month, though he told reporters in recent days he was "optimistic." Like the DOJ, Comer's probe is focused on Biden's mental decline and use of autopen for pardons and other executive actions. "The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating the role of former senior Biden White House officials in possibly usurping authority from former President Joe Biden and the ramifications of a White House staff intent on hiding his rapidly worsening mental and physical faculties," Comer said in letters to the former Biden officials.
