WASHINGTON — Top Biden aide Anthony Bernal is refusing to appear before a House Republican-led committee on Thursday to answer questions about the purported cover-up of the president’s cognitive decline while in office.
Bernal, known as first lady Jill Biden’s “work husband” and a loyal member of the family’s inner circle, flouted an invitation to sit for a transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee after the Trump White House waived executive privilege for the testimony.
“With no privilege left to hide behind, Mr. Bernal is now running scared, desperate to bury the truth,” said Oversight chairman James Comer (R-Ky.)
“The American people deserve answers and accountability, and the Oversight Committee will not tolerate this obstruction. I will promptly issue a subpoena to compel Anthony Bernal’s testimony before the Committee.”
Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who served as the former White House physician for Biden, has already been issued a subpoena to appear for testimony Friday.
Bernal’s move comes after former White House Domestic Policy Council director Neera Tanden testified to the Oversight panel on Tuesday, without the shield of privilege covering her statements.
“After balancing the Legislative and Executive Branch interests, as required under the accommodation process, it is the President’s view that this presents an exceptional situation in which the congressional need for information outweighs the Executive Branch’s interest in maintaining confidentiality,” wrote Gary Lawkowski, deputy White House counsel, in a Monday letter to Tanden.
Comer said Tanden revealed in her testimony that she controlled access to Biden’s autopen — despite having “minimal interaction” with the president — and sent numerous “decision memos” to an “inner circle” of White House advisers for approval.
“Her testimony raises serious questions about who was really calling the shots in the Biden White House amid the President’s obvious decline,” the Oversight chairman thundered.
Executive privilege allows US presidents to keep internal communications confidential and has been used by past members of administrations — including alumni from Trump’s first term — to keep congressional investigators at arm’s length.
“I answered every question, was pleased to discuss my public service and, uh, it was a thorough process,” Tanden told reporters confidently after the transcribed interview Tuesday, adding that there was “absolutely” no cover-up of Biden’s mental state on her part.
Tanden served as a senior adviser and staff secretary in the White House from 2021 to 2023 after failing to get enough votes to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) due to objections about her partisan social media posts from former Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV).
Biden denied in a statement earlier this month that any member of his White House exercised clemency or signed executive actions without his knowledge and assent.
“I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false,” he said.
The Trump administration is also pursuing a related probe of Biden’s use of the presidential pardon power, particularly with respect to the autopen authorizations.
President Trump instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to initiate an inquiry into his predecessor’s use of the mechanical device, which has aided administrations at least as far back as former President Harry S. Truman.
