WASHINGTON − Anthony Bernal, former chief of staff to first lady Jill Biden, invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions at a July 16 closed-door deposition in House Republicans’ investigation into President Joe Biden’s mental acuity and use of an autopen.
Bernal, who was a key member in Joe Biden’s White House inner circle, became the second person to assert their Fifth Amendment right to the Republican-led House Oversight Committee after Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s former White House physician, refused to answer questions last week.
The Republican-led committee released footage of Bernal’s sworn testimony after the deposition.
More: Biden’s doctor won’t testify in Congressional investigation into his mental fitness
“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question, pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution,” Bernal told the panel when asked whether Biden was fit to exercise his presidential duties and in response to other questions posed by Republicans, including whether other unelected officials executed those duties instead.
The Constitution’s Fifth Amendment protects citizens from being forced to testify in official proceedings.
More: Biden says he made the decisions on clemency actions granted with autopen
Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, chairman of the oversight committee, in a statement alleged Biden aides “took unauthorized executive actions during his presidency amid his cognitive decline,” adding that it’s “no surprise that Anthony Bernal is pleading the Fifth Amendment to shield himself from criminal liability.”
All recent U.S. presidents including President Donald Trump have used autopens to sign some letters and documents.
But Trump and House Republicans have accused Biden of being incapacitated when his aides used the signature device to sign off on pardons and commutations during the final months of his presidency. The clemency actions included a blanket pardon for his son Hunter Biden, preemptive pardons for other family members and Trump adversaries, and sweeping commutations for nonviolent drug offenders.
Joe Biden, now 82, dropped out of the 2024 presidential election last July after he struggled to articulate coherent thoughts during a debate with Trump that accelerated concerns about his mental fitness. Six months after Biden left the White House, his mental acuity has been revisited in books about his presidency and is at the center of probes by House Republicans, the Department of Justice and the White House.
Biden, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in May, pushed back at the Republican attacks during an interview with the New York Times, published July 13, calling Republicans “liars” and claiming all clemency actions were his decisions.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygaarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jill Biden’s chief of staff invokes Fifth in Republican investigation
