Jill Biden aide invokes Fifth to decline testimony in Republican investigation

By MATT BROWN WASHINGTON AP A former senior aide to Jill Biden on Wednesday became the second person to invoke the Fifth Amendment and decline to answer questions from House Republicans who are probing President Joe Biden s mental state and use of the autopen while in office Related Articles Before it was Alligator Alcatraz this airstrip sparked fury and changed America s landscape The push to defund Planned Parenthood hit other clinics in Maine Now their group is suing Trump slams his own supporters as weaklings for falling for what he now calls the Epstein hoax RFK Jr and other Trump executives embrace psychedelics after FDA setback Bipartisan aid helps foundations avoid tax increase in new Trump law Anthony Bernal who previously served as chief of staff to former first lady Jill Biden was subpoenaed for his testimony by the House Oversight Committee He declined to answer questions invoking the protections that prevent people from being forced to testify against themselves in cabinet proceedings Well unfortunately that was quick disclosed Rep James Comer chair of the House Oversight Committee after the deposition ended I believe the American people are concerned 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 Bernal ignored questions from reporters as he entered and exited the House Oversight Committee s hearing room on Capitol Hill He was accompanied by his lawyer Jonathan Su who was a deputy White House counsel to the former president Su in a report provided to the committee noted that pleading the Fifth is not evidence of wrongdoing The former president has dismissed the inquiries as legally spurious In a up-to-date interview with the New York Times Biden announced that he delegated responsibilities when necessary as president but was actively involved and knowledgeable of all of his administration s actions including on granting clemency I consciously made all those decisions Biden announced Comer has sought testimony from nearly a dozen former Biden aides as he conducts his scrutiny including former White House chiefs of staff Ron Klain and Jeff Zients former senior advisers Mike Donilon and Anita Dunn former deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed former counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti former deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini and a former assistant to the president Ashley Williams On Tuesday Comer also subpoenaed Annie Tomasini a former White House deputy chief of staff to appear before the committee on July She is the third former official to be subpoenaed by the committee Democrats have been dismissive of the Republican probe as mere political theater They still look like losers disclosed Rep Jasmine Crockett D-Texas who sat in on Bernal s committee deposition But multiple Republicans see the probe as a top priority for their caucus and a politically salient issue for voters ahead of the midterm voting process The Trump White House has launched its own probe into Biden s age while Senate Republicans have also held hearings on the topic This is corruption at the highest level because if you cannot answer a simple question about Joe Biden s capabilities then that further demonstrates that he was not in charge of his administration mentioned Rep Byron Donalds R-Fla who sat in on Bernal s deposition Donalds explained every member of the Biden administration at this point necessities to be subpoenaed including Vice President Kamala Harris and Jill Biden Comer did not rule out seeking testimony from Harris or members of Biden s family We re going to bring in everyone We re moving up the line Comer reported We ve started with the lower level staffers that we think were the ones that literally put the documents in the autopen and pressed power Now we re moving up to the people that we think explained the staffers to use the autopen So we ll we ll see where that takes us Comer announced But I think the possibility is very good that we ll be asking members of the family to come in Associated Press writer Michelle L Price contributed reporting