House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Assistant to Jill Biden

Republicans have called into question who was in charge of the Biden administration, after alleging Biden suffered from cognitive difficulties.

First Lady Jill Biden and her senior adviser, Anthony Bernal, arrive at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Del., on June 7, 2024. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The House Oversight Committee on June 26 subpoenaed Anthony Bernal, a former assistant to former First Lady Jill Biden, after he failed to appear before the committee to testify about who was in charge of the White House during former President Joe Biden’s final two years in office.

This comes a day after Bernal refused to testify before the committee about Biden’s use of an autopen after the White House said that his testimony would not be subject to executive privilege.

“Now that the White House has waived executive privilege, it’s abundantly clear that Anthony Bernal—Jill Biden’s so-called ‘work husband’—never intended to be transparent about Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and the ensuing cover-up. With no privilege left to hide behind, Mr. Bernal is now running scared, desperate to bury the truth,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a June 25 statement.

Republicans have called into question who was in charge of the Biden administration, after alleging that Biden suffered from cognitive difficulties.

In a June 26 letter to Bernal, Comer wrote that the committee requested he testify because of his close ties to Joe and 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,” the letter reads.

The committee, Comer wrote to Bernal, wants to know the extent of his influence over Biden and his “knowledge of whether the former President was personally discharging the duties of his office.”

Comer wrote that Bernal’s testimony is “critical” and that the committee accommodated Bernal’s counsel’s requests, such as providing the witness with interview topics two weeks in advance instead of just one week.

The committee, though, rejected his counsel’s request on June 18 that the testimony be delayed a few weeks so that Bernal could prepare.

The Epoch Times reached out to Bernal for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

On June 24, former White House Staff Secretary Neera Tanden sat with the committee for an interview.

“Ms. Tanden testified that she had minimal interaction with President Biden, despite wielding tremendous authority,” Comer said in the June 25 statement.

“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.

“Her testimony raises serious questions about who was really calling the shots in the Biden White House amid the president’s obvious decline.”

On June 4, President Donald Trump ordered a review of the use of the autopen during Biden’s presidency.