Anthony Bernal, former assistant to the president and senior adviser to former first lady Jill Biden, canceled his plans to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday for a transcribed interview relating to former President Joe Biden‘s use of the autopen.
Bernal was slated to be the second of nine closed-door interviews conducted by the Oversight majority and minority counsel for the investigation to look into “who was calling the shots” during Biden’s final two years in office and why the president’s signature was increasingly replaced by the use of an autopen to sign certain executive orders.
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“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,” Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said in a statement.
“With no privilege left to hide behind, Mr. Bernal is now running scared, desperate to bury the truth,” Comer continued. “The American people deserve answers and accountability, and the Oversight Committee will not tolerate this obstruction. I will promptly issue a subpoena to compel Anthony Bernal’s testimony before the Committee.”
The abrupt cancellation of the transcribed interview happened after the White House waived executive privilege, which allows the witness to withhold information from Congress to protect the integrity of the executive branch. It also comes a day after Neera Tanden, former staff secretary, testified on Biden’s use of the autopen.
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“In light of unique and extraordinary nature of the matters under investigation, President Trump has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the national interest, and therefore not justified, with respect to particular subjects within the purview of the House Oversight Committee,” the nine letters, obtained by the Washington Examiner, waiving executive privilege read.
The interview was supposed to be in a similar fashion to Tanden’s, which lasted over four hours and included a break for lunch, with a couple of members from both parties briefly entering the room during the interview.
