Former Biden aide Anthony Bernal subpoenaed by House committee after refusing to appear for deposition
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., issued a subpoena Thursday to Anthony Bernal, former Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the First Lady, to appear for a July 16 deposition.
It comes as part of the committee’s investigation into the alleged cover-up of former President Joe Biden’s mental decline and potentially unauthorized executive actions.
Bernal had confirmed his appearance for a voluntary transcribed interview on June 26, but after the White House Counsel’s office informed him it was waiving executive privilege for the Oversight committee’s investigation, he refused to appear.
“Given your close connection with both former President Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden, the Committee sought to understand if you contributed to an effort to hide former President Biden’s fitness to serve from the American people,” Comer wrote in a letter to Bernal on Thursday with the subpoena attached. “You have refused the Committee’s request. However, to advance the Committee’s oversight and legislative responsibilities and interests, your testimony is critical.”
Comer said that the committee “seeks information about your assessment of and relationship with former President Biden to explore whether the time has come for Congress to revisit potential legislation to address the oversight of presidents’ fitness to serve pursuant to its authority under Section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment or to propose changes to the Twenty-Fifth Amendment itself.”
Bernal is one of five former senior advisors who Comer has said “were eyewitnesses to President Biden’s condition and operations within the Biden White House.”
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“They must appear before the House Oversight Committee and provide truthful answers about President Biden’s cognitive state and who was calling the shots,” Comer said earlier this month.
In addition to the House probe, President Donald Trump earlier this month directed his administration to investigate Biden’s actions as president, claiming aides masked the 46th president’s “cognitive decline.” Biden responded in a written statement: “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”
In a memo describing the investigation, Trump said, “This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history.”
“The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts,” he added.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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