OAN Staff Abril Elfi
9:08 AM – Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Anthony Bernal, former assistant to Joe Biden and senior advisor to Jill Biden, declined to answer questions about Biden’s cognitive decline, pleading the Fifth Amendment.
On Wednesday, Bernal was compelled for a closed-door deposition after missing a previously agreed-upon interview date late last month.
According to a report by Fox News Digital, Bernal pleaded the Fifth Amendment to the questions asked by House staffers.
Later on, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) confirmed that Bernal invoked his right against self-incrimination.
During comments to reporters alongside committee member Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who was also present, Comer stated that “all options are on the table” when asked whether the former president himself should be brought in.
“We’re gonna continue our investigation. I think that the American people are concerned,” Comer said.
“During his deposition today, Mr. Bernal pleaded the Fifth when asked if any unelected official or family members executed the duties of the President and if Joe Biden ever instructed him to lie about his health,” Comer said during a follow-up statement.
Donalds also called for House investigators to aggressively pursue their leads.
“The chairman is being nice. I don’t have to be. This is corruption at the highest level, because if you cannot, say, answer a simple question about Joe Biden’s capabilities, then that further demonstrates that he was not in charge of his administration,” Donalds said.
“And if he was not in charge of his administration, then every order, every bill that was signed, every memorandum, as far as I’m concerned, are null and void.”
In an interview with The New York Times, the former president affirmed he “made every decision” on his own.
Bernal is now the second person to plead the fifth during the investigation after Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s physician during his last White House term, also did so last week.
Comer is currently investigating the bombshell charges in the Biden White House tell-all “Original Sin,” which was published on May 20th by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson.
The co-authors claimed that a “Politburo” of close senior advisers, including Annie Tomasini, operated as the “ultimate decision-makers” in the former White House administration.
Other alleged “Politburo” members who will sit for interviews with the Oversight panel include former White House chief of staff Ron Klain (July 24th), former counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti (July 30th), former senior adviser Mike Donilon (July 31th) and former deputy chief of staff for policy Bruce Reed (August 5th).
In addition, Anita Dunn, who served as a senior adviser for communications to the president, will sit for a transcribed interview August 7th.
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