{"id":30841,"date":"2025-07-16T16:36:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T16:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=30841"},"modified":"2025-07-16T16:36:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T16:36:56","slug":"jill-bidens-work-husband-anthony-bernal-takes-the-fifth-in-house-gop-probe-of-biden-health-cover-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=30841","title":{"rendered":"Jill Biden\u2019s \u2018work husband\u2019 Anthony Bernal takes the Fifth in House GOP probe of Biden health cover-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

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WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0Jill Biden\u2019s \u201cwork husband\u201d Anthony Bernal<\/a>\u00a0became the second former White House aide to take the Fifth Amendment when hauled before a congressional committee Wednesday to answer questions about the 46th president\u2019s cognitive decline.<\/p>\n

Bernal, like\u00a0Joe Biden\u2019s former personal physician Kevin O\u2019Connor<\/a>, invoked his right against self-incrimination and departed without taking reporter questions.<\/p>\n

Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said he only got to ask two questions of the Biden family confidant: \u201cWas Joe Biden fit to exercise the duties of the president?\u201d and \u201cDid any unelected official or family member execute the duties of the presidency?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Anthony8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
Anthony Bernal, aide to former first lady Jill Biden, arrives to testify before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday, July 16, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington.AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\"President8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
Bernal became the second former White House aide to plead the Fifth Amendment when questioned about former President Joe Biden\u2019s cognitive decline.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the American people are concerned,\u201d Comer added. \u201cThey\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a historic scandal and Americans demand transparency and accountability,\u201d the chairman said in a subsequent statement.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor, who served as Biden\u2019s doctor during his vice presidency and presidency, took\u00a0the Fifth<\/a>\u00a0last Friday when asked if he was ever told to \u201clie about the president\u2019s health\u201d or believed the president was \u201cunfit to execute his duties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), a member of the Oversight panel, has maintained that Biden\u00a0\u201ccompletely understood what was going on\u201d and \u201cmay get fumbled up by words, but that\u2019s not anything new and it\u2019s not anything that came with age.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Jill8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
Bernal departed without taking reporter questions.AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But\u00a0Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) said Bernal\u2019s hasty retreat implicates him in \u201ccorruption at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you cannot, say, answer a simple question about Joe Biden\u2019s capabilities, then that further demonstrates that he was not in charge of his administration,\u201d Donalds told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if he was not in charge of his administration, then every order, every bill that was signed, every memorandum, as far as I\u2019m concerned, are null and void.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donalds, who is running for governor of Florida next year, added that Jill Biden herself should \u201ccome in here and answer questions\u201d after her deputy declined to do so.<\/p>\n

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\"Jill8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
Jill Biden and an aide arrive at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building during Hunter Biden\u2019s gun trial.Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI think [former Vice President] Kamala Harris [also] needs to come in and tell us what she knew and when she knew it,\u201d the congressman also threatened.<\/p>\n

Comer\u00a0noted that his panel would continue\u00a0with transcribed interviews\u00a0and depositions of key Biden White House aides to determine the scale of the purported cover-up of the president\u2019s mental decline, as well as potential \u201cillegal use of the autopen\u201d to grant pardons.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s deputy chief of staff, Annie Tomasini, requested through her lawyer to be\u00a0handed a subpoena<\/a>\u00a0in order to testify this Friday, making her the fifth aide to face questioning from lawmakers and staff.<\/p>\n

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\"Anthony8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
Anthony Bernal, center, a former senior aide to former first lady Jill Biden, arrives for a deposition on July 16, 2025.AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Neera Tanden, a senior adviser who became director of the Domestic Policy Counsel, and\u00a0Ashley Williams<\/a>, deputy\u00a0director of Oval Office operations, sat for transcribed interviews without taking the Fifth before the brief depositions with Brenal and O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n

Asked whether there was an effort in the White House to cover up Biden\u2019s cognitive decline, Tanden\u00a0told reporters<\/a>\u00a0after her June 24 interview: \u201cAbsolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden \u201cadmitted he didn\u2019t know everything, he didn\u2019t sign off on every individual pardon,\u201d Comer added, referencing the ex-commander in chief\u2019s recent interview with The New York Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the possibility is very good that we\u2019ll be asking members of the family to come in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"President8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
President Joe Biden told The New York Times he didn\u2019t off on every individual pardon.AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The retired president told The Times that he \u201cmade every decision<\/a>\u201d regarding executive clemencies issued during his term \u2014 but emails showed White House\u00a0chief of staff Jeff Zients wielded the autopen to approve\u00a025 warrants for pardons and commutations between last December and January.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about a lot of people,\u201d said Biden in defense of his actions. Two of the\u00a0warrants had\u00a0commuted sentences<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0thousands of convicts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff<\/a>, and other members of the Biden family received preemptive pardons on Jan. 20, authorized with the autopen because the president worried his successor would pursue\u00a0\u201cvindictive\u201d prosecutions.<\/p>\n

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\"President8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
Joe Biden came under scrutiny for his use of the autopen.AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The autopen has been used by presidents at least as far back as Harry S. Truman, but the Biden White House\u2019s sweeping use of the mechanical device amid public concerns about his diminishing cognitive acuity have drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and journalists alike.<\/p>\n

President Trump\u2019s Justice Department is also\u00a0probing\u00a0the autopen controversy<\/a>\u00a0to see whether any aides \u201cabused the power of Presidential signatures.\u201d<\/p>\n

In some cases, staff secretary Stefanie Feldman used only written accounts of the president\u2019s approval before putting documents into the autopen for signatures, The Times reported, even when the assistants who drafted the \u201cblurbs\u201d weren\u2019t in the room with Biden.<\/p>\n

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\"President8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
Former President Biden has come under scrutiny for his health and autopen use during his presidency.AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a crime to do that to the country,\u201d Trump charged on\u00a0The Post\u2019s \u201cPod Force One\u201d podcast<\/a>\u00a0when asked about the alleged autopen abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he knew he was doing it. I think that people took over the autopen, they got things signed that shouldn\u2019t have been signed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0Jill Biden\u2019s \u201cwork husband\u201d Anthony Bernal\u00a0became the second former White House aide to take the Fifth Amendment when hauled before a congressional committee Wednesday to answer questions … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30843,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30841\/revisions\/30843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}