Anthony Bernal, the longtime Biden aide nicknamed ‘Jill’s husband,’ was slapped with a subpoena by Republicans after he missed Thursday’s session to testify on former President Joe Biden’s mental health.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer issued a subpoena demanding Bernal appear on July 16 as part of his probe into aides’ management of the former president.
Bernal was scheduled to appear before the committee on Thursday and Republicans accused him of refusing to appear.
But his allies pushed back against that accusation.
‘Calling this a ‘refusal’ is misleading, when there was simply a request to reschedule the interview,’ a person familiar with Bernal’s interactions with the committee told DailyMail.com.
Bernal’s refusal to appear came after President Donald Trump’s administration waived executive privilege for Bernal and other aides who were called to testify about the former president.
‘With no privilege left to hide behind, Mr. Bernal is now running scared, desperate to bury the truth,’ Comer said.
Executive privilege guarantees aides ability to speak frankly to a president by giving the president authority to withhold certain information from Congress. It is not unusual for one administration to waive it for another. Biden’s administration, for example, waved it for Trump aides who were subpoenaed by Democrats on the special committee looking into the January 6th insurrection.
Comer’s letter issuing the subpoena outlines a repeated back-and-forth between the committee and Bernal’s lawyer over the date of his appearance.
‘Yesterday, on June 25, your counsel informed the Committee that you were no longer willing to appear voluntarily for the transcribed interview on the agreed-upon date: today, June 26,’ Comer wrote. ‘To avoid any further delays, your appearance before the Committee is now compelled.’
Bernal has worked for the Bidens since Joe Biden served as vice president. He worked for Jill Biden in the East Wing when she was first lady. But he had an outsized influence over the couple and over White House operations.
He continues to work for them.
Michael LaRosa, Jill Biden’s former press secretary who worked with Bernal, told Fox News that Bernal ‘was probably the most power human inside the Biden’s orbit and inside the White House.’
LaRosa later took to social media to weigh in on the situation.
‘For Anthony’s sake, I hope there is a shrewd legal strategy behind this move,’ he wrote on X. ‘Otherwise, it feels like a needlessly bonehead escalation that does a major disservice to Dr. B + 46. Media attention was largely focused elsewhere but now the alarm bells are deafening. Bad look for him and the Bidens.’
Comer and fellow Republicans are investigating whether senior Biden aides played any role in keeping quite concerns about the 82-year-old’s mental health capacities.
The first Biden aide, Neera Tanden, appeared before lawmakers on Tuesday for a sworn deposition.
She told reporters afterward that there was ‘absolutely not’ any effort by aides to disguise Biden’s mental state.
‘I answered every question, was pleased to discuss my public service, and it was a thorough process, and I’m glad I answered everyone’s question,’ she said.
Comer, however, said Tanden revealed she was the one who controled access to Biden’s autopen. Tanden, who served as staff secretary, said she had ‘minimal interaction’ with the president and sent numerous ‘decision memos’ to an ‘inner circle’ of White House advisers for approval.
‘Her testimony raises serious questions about who was really calling the shots in the Biden White House amid the President’s obvious decline,’ he said.
But Tanden was not as personally close to Biden as Bernal, who had walk-in privileges for the Oval Office and the residence, the upper floors of the White House where the Bidens live. Very few aides – usually only the closest and most-trusted – have access to the residence.
Comer told Bernal in the letter that his testimony was particularly important.
‘Given your close connection with both former President Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden, the Committee sought to understand if you contributed to an effort to hide former President Biden’s fitness to serve from the American people,’ he wrote.
Bernal is not the only person close to Biden to receive a subpoena.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who served as the former White House physician for Biden, has already been issued a subpoena to appear for testimony Friday.