Another former senior official in the Biden administration pleaded the Fifth on Friday instead of answering questions for a congressional investigation into the former president’s mental decline.
Annie Tomasini, Biden’s former assistant and deputy director of Oval Office operations, invoked her Fifth Amendment right during a closed-door session with the House Oversight Committee. She is the third witness to plead the Fifth after being brought in for closed-door testimony about the efforts Biden’s aides took to shield his worsening mental acuity from the public.
“Today, the third witness in our investigation into the cover-up of President Biden’s cognitive decline and unauthorized executive actions pleaded the Fifth Amendment. There is now a pattern of key Biden confidants seeking to shield themselves from criminal liability for this potential conspiracy,” House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) said in a statement.
Tomasini pleaded the Fifth when asked about whether she ever had to lie about his health. She also did so in response to questions about Biden’s handling of classified documents and if she conspired to hide information about the Biden family’s foreign business dealings.
“It’s unbelievable that Ms. Tomasini and others refuse to answer basic questions about President Biden’s fitness to serve. It’s apparent they would rather hide key information to protect themselves and Joe Biden than be truthful with the American people about this historic scandal,” Comer added.
Tomasini is the second witness this week to plead the Fifth after former First Lady Jill Biden’s top aide Anthony Bernal. Joe Biden’s physician and friend Kevin O’Connor pleaded the Fifth last week because of patient-client privilege and the Justice Department’s pending criminal investigation.
President Trump has ordered the Justice Department to investigate whether Biden’s aides conspired to hide his mental decline from the American public. Comer has not ruled out sending criminal referrals to the Justice Department if his investigation finds evidence of illegal activity.
Comer’s investigation is focused on Biden’s mental decline and whether his staff used the presidential autopen to make executive decisions without his knowledge. Comer has scheduled interviews with several of Biden’s top aides and spokespeople to move the investigation forward over the next few weeks.
So far, former senior official Neera Tanden is the only witness to deliver substantive testimony for Comer’s investigation. Tanden described how she hardly interacted with the president and sent memos to more senior officials to receive permission for the autopen.
Biden has denied the possibility his aides made decisions about autopen usage and presidential pardon without his authorization. Speaking to the New York Times, Biden said he made every decision related to granting clemency.
“I made every single one of those. And — including the categories, when we set this up to begin with. And so — but I understand why Trump would think that, because obviously, I guess, he doesn’t focus much. Anyway, so — yes, I made every decision,” he said.
The Times recently obtained a tranche of emails from the National Archives suggesting otherwise. The emails showed Biden selected the criteria for who would receive clemency but he did not review every single name to be pardoned.