The plot thickens in the Biden senility/autopen scandal.
A top aide subpoenaed to testify on Wednesday in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s investigations into the alleged cover-up of former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline took the Fifth, just as Biden’s personal White House physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, did the week before.
Anthony Bernal, former assistant to Biden and senior adviser to first lady Jill Biden — aka Jill Biden’s “work husband” — reportedly dodged question after question from committee staff during the closed-door session, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
In a statement following the fruitless sworn and transcribed interview, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., referenced this week’s New York Times story in which the former president said he “made every decision” on a record number of pardons and commutations — most coming at the end of his term. Emails obtained by The Times, however, show one of Biden’s closest advisers approved the use of the autopen on midnight pardons.
“This week new reporting confirms President Biden’s aides took unauthorized executive actions during his presidency amid his cognitive decline,” Comer said. “It’s no surprise that Anthony Bernal is pleading the Fifth Amendment to shield himself from criminal liability.”
Comer in the statement confirmed that Bernal, believed to be one of the Bidens’ most loyal aides, invoked the Fifth during his deposition when directly asked “if any unelected official or family members executed the duties of the President and if Joe Biden ever instructed him to lie about his health.”
“This is a historic scandal and Americans demand transparency and accountability,” the chairman added. “We will continue to pursue the truth on their behalf and examine options to get the answers we need.”
‘Corruption at the Highest Level’
But it’s clear that Biden’s inner circle is lawyering up and clamming up. The Times reported what the Oversight Committee knows all too well, that Biden administration officials have “enlisted a flight of white-shoe lawyers from around Washington.”
“Some lawyers are said to have warned their clients not to talk publicly and about the dangers of testifying because the Justice Department under Mr. Trump might be eager to bring perjury charges over any inconsistency, no matter how minor,” New York Times’ Washington correspondents Charlie Savage and Tyler Pager wrote.
O’Connor’s lawyers “cited the pending Justice Department inquiry and the risk of being ensnared in ambiguous circumstances,” according to the piece.
According to Fox News, several committee members entered the room during the staff-led deposition, including Reps. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and the ever-unhinged Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., told reporters that investigators will need to step up their efforts to get at the truth. Donalds said the silent treatment from Biden’s former handlers is telling.
“The chairman is being nice. I don’t have to be. This is corruption at the highest level, because if you cannot, say, answer a simple question about Joe Biden’s capabilities, then that further demonstrates that he was not in charge of his administration,” Donalds said, according to Fox News.
Comer told reporters that he believes former Vice President Kamala Harris and Jill Biden should be compelled to testify.
“Well, I think they should,” Comer told ABC News when asked if the committee ought to subpoena the key witnesses. “They should have already issued statements. They should have already done public relations campaign to sit down and answer questions. They should go on FOX, they should go on CNN and answer questions.”
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, in late May sent 28 former Biden cabinet officials letters seeking answers on Biden’s “cognitive and health decline during his time in office and while running for reelection.” The list includes former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Attorney General Merrick Garland, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and several of the former White House aides called by the House Committee.
‘Defined by Declining Mental Capacities’
Next up to answer questions under deposition is Annie Tomasini, former assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff, slated to appear before Oversight staff on Friday. Ron Klain, Biden’s former chief of staff, is set to appear on July 24.
The New York Times piece on the scandal raises a lot more questions about just who was in control of the White House — and the thousands of presidential clemency decisions issued in the waning days of Biden’s disastrous term.
Interestingly, The Times’ piece notes that the only clemency warrant that Biden signed with his own hand in late 2024 was the preemptive full pardon he granted his corrupt son, Hunter Biden.
Oversight Committee member Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., said the former aides’ refusal to answer questions should come as no surprise.
“The Biden administration has ignored the law for years,” Grothman told The Federalist on Wednesday in a phone interview from the Capitol. “Media sources, including the late Rush Limbaugh, talked about Biden’s mental problems before he took office.”
“Largely because of his immigration policies, he is, I think, the worst president we have ever had,” Grothman continued. “This leaves open the question of whether his presidency was defined by declining mental capacities or an increasingly left-wing, anti-American Democratic Party.”