Comer will receive closed-door testimony from former White House chief of staff Ron Klain and other former White House aides.
House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) has secured more interviews with top aides to former President Joe Biden for his investigation into the previous administration’s coverup of Biden’s mental decline.
Comer will be getting closed-door testimony from former White House chief of staff Ron Klain, former counselor Steve Richetti, former senior adviser Mike Donilon, former deputy chief of staff for policy Bruce Reed, and former senior adviser for communications Anita Dunn, according to an Oversight Committee aide.
Klain, Richetti, and Donilon’s interviews will take place in late July. Reed and Dunn are set to testify in early August. All five former Biden officials had senior roles in the administration and would have had a front row seat to his worsening cognitive abilities.
Comer’s investigation is focused on Biden’s mental decline and whether the administration used the presidential autopen to sign official documents without Biden’s knowledge. Biden himself has dismissed the possibility his officials made presidential decisions instead of him.
According to the bombshell book Original Sin, Klain, Richetti, Donilon, and Reed were part of the “politburo,” a group of advisers who called the shots in the White House. Comer cited the book, authored by Axios reporter Alex Thompson and CNN host Jake Tapper, in requesting testimony from them in June.
Comer already confirmed interview dates with former Biden officials Ashley Williams and Annie Tomasini on July 11 and July 18 respectively. He previously subpoenaed Biden’s longtime physician and friend Kevin O’Connor, who is scheduled to testify on July 9. O’Connor will likely face scrutiny for Biden’s “aggressive” prostate cancer diagnosis, in addition to Biden’s declining mental faculties.
Comer has also subpoenaed former Jill Biden aide Anthony Bernal to testify later this month after Bernal reneged on an agreed upon interview date when the Trump administration waived executive privilege for Comer’s investigation.
In addition, Comer is seeking testimony from Biden’s other former chief of staff, Jeff Zients, and three high-profile communications officials. Those officials are former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, former senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates, and former special assistant to the president Ian Sams.
Jean-Pierre, the most public facing spokesperson for President Biden’s mental fitness, has left the Democratic Party and is now an independent after having made her career in Democratic politics. She is releasing a memoir on her time in the White House and the need for reform to the two-party system.
Neera Tanden, another former senior Biden official, testified before the Oversight Committee last month and described how she hardly interacted with Biden and did not know what happened after she sent memos for approval to use the autopen.
“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,” Comer said of Tanden’s testimony.
Comer’s investigation is one of several congressional probes into the lengths to which White House officials went to hide Biden’s worsening mental state from the public.