Anthony Bernal, chief of staff for former First Lady Jill Biden, invoked his Fifth Amendment right and refused to answer questions when he was called to testify at a deposition on Wednesday.
It was part of a probe into former President Joe Biden’s overall health and mental fitness — especially toward the end of his term in the White House.
“I just want to get answers to the American people,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., who subpoenaed Bernal, told reporters after what he described as an “unfortunately quick” deposition.
“I think that the American people are concerned,” he added. “They’re concerned that there were people making decisions in the White House that were not only unelected, but no one to this day knows who they were.”
Comer said the committee asked Bernal two “simple” questions about Biden’s health — if Biden was fit to exercise duties as president, and if any elected official or family member executed the duties of the president.
But Comer said Bernal declined to respond to both inquiries, also sayng his answers were not an admission of guilt, nor an indication of anything that was going on during the Biden administration.
“First thing’s first, that’s just crazy,” Rep. Byron Donalds said. “You can’t answer a simple question about the former president’s ability to discharge his duties and you worked in the White House as chief of staff to the first lady and you come in here and plead the Fifth,” adding that Bernal is “hiding behind the Constitution.”
“It’s not just shocking, it’s stunning and it demonstrates the level of corruption that was going on in that administration,” he said.
Donalds said he thinks the fact Bernal was mute further shows Biden was not in charge of the White House during his term.
“And if he was not in charge of his administration, then every order, every bill that was signed, every memorandum, as far as I’m concerned, are null and void,” Donalds said.
Comer and Donalds, along with other Republican members of the the oversight committee, as well as President Donald Trump, continue to investigate Biden’s health. They say some policies carried out during Biden’s term through the use of the White House autopen might be illegitimate if it’s proven the Democrat was mentally incapacitated for some of his term.
“We believe there was illegal use of the auto pen,” Comer said Wednesday when speaking to reporters.
He shared similar sentiments on social media leading up to the deposition.
“We all know Joe Biden wasn’t calling the shots in the White House,” Comer wrote on X on Monday.
Biden has denied he was not in a right state of mind at any point while in office, calling the claims “ridiculous and false.”
Bernal marks the second witness to plead the Fifth in connection to the investigation.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s former White House physician, also recently refused to answer questions as part of the investigation into Biden’s health in office after he was subpoenaed in June.
Connor invoked his rights under the Fifth Amendment during a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee, his attorney and lawmakers said.
“When Joe Biden’s doctor was asked under oath whether he had ever been instructed to lie about Joe Biden’s health, he pleaded the Fifth,” Comer previously wrote on X. “When questioned under oath about whether he believed Biden was fit to serve, he again pleaded the Fifth. President Trump is right: this is the biggest scandal in Oval Office history.”
Trump on Monday said he thinks the autopen “is maybe one of the biggest scandals that we’ve had in 50-100 years. I guarantee you Joe knew nothing about what he was signing. I guarantee it.”
Trump has been critical of Biden in recent years, often calling him “Sleepy Joe” and saying Biden frequently mumbles and slurs his words.
While speaking to reporters in the Oval Office recently, Trump suggested his predecessor wasn’t always the one signing memos and executive orders.
“I know some of the people who used the autopen and they did not have the same ideology as Joe Biden,” Trump said. “These are radical left lunatics; they didn’t get elected.”
Comer said the committee plans to continue to investigate and subpoena people close to Biden to “give them an opportunity to answer questions.” When reporters asked if Jill Biden would be among them, Donalds said they will subpoena anyone and everyone, even former White House janitors if they have to.
Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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