WASHINGTON — House Republicans issued subpoenas Wednesday to three of President Biden’s closest West Wing aides, saying their testimony is necessary to evaluate the 81-year-old president’s cognitive fitness — with a subpoena of Biden’s physician looming as a potential next step ahead of a Sunday deadline to comply with a voluntary interview request.
House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) cited an Axios report that described White House deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini, first lady Jill Biden’s senior adviser Anthony Bernal, and deputy director of Oval Office operations Ashley Williams as forming “a protective bubble” around Biden.
Testimony from the trio previously was requested by Comer as part of oversight of the Justice Department’s investigation of Biden’s mishandling of classified information, but that attempt was blocked by the White House.
“The White House has shielded three key aides from testifying about President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents and now we’ve learned through reporting these same aides are also seeking to cover up President Biden’s declining cognitive state inside the White House,” Comer said in a press release.
“President Biden is clearly unfit for office, yet his staff are trying to hide the truth from the American people. Key White House staff must come before our committee so we can provide the transparency and accountability that Americans deserve.”
White House counsel’s office spokesman Ian Sams ridiculed the subpoenas as a “political stunt.”
“Like everything Congressman Comer has done over the past year, these subpoenas are a baseless political stunt intended for him to get media attention instead of engage in legitimate oversight,” Sams said.
“His partisan attacks on the President have been discredited, and now he continues to debase the House by weaponizing subpoenas to get headlines instead of seeking information through the proper constitutional process.”
It was not immediately clear what steps the White House might take to avoid making the trio available — such as asserting executive privilege over certain information or merely declining to cooperate — and what measures House Republicans might then use to compel testimony, such as holding the subjects in contempt, which can carry criminal penalties.
Eight House Democrats have publicly called for Biden to step aside as the party’s presidential nominee following his disastrous June 27 debate performance against former President Donald Trump — though it’s unclear if any support Comer’s bid for testimony from White House staff.
Bernal, 51, in particular has emerged as one of Biden’s closest advisers in the chaotic aftermath of his confused debate appearance, four sources told The Post last week — with several likening his pull over the first family to that of Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin over Russia’s Romanov dynasty.
Bernal has faced allegations of bullying and sexual harassment from colleagues, but is viewed as immune from consequences because the first lady regards him as her “work husband.”
Sources within or close to the White House said that Biden is relying most heavily on Bernal and longtime adviser and speechwriter Mike Donilon as he navigates mounting calls from fellow Democrats for him to end his candidacy for a second term or risk a landslide loss to Trump.
“The Committee is concerned that Mr. Bernal appears to be one of several White House staffers who have taken it upon themselves to run the country while the President cannot,” Comer wrote in a letter to White House counsel Ed Siskel, with similar wording in letters pertaining to Tomasini and Williams.
“To be clear, the American people did not elect Mr. Bernal or any White House staffer to do President Biden’s job for him, and the Committee seeks Mr. Bernal’s testimony regarding the matters identified above.”