(Headline USA) A former senior aide to Jill Biden on Wednesday became the second person to invoke the Fifth Amendment and decline to answer questions from House Republicans who are investigating President Joe Biden’s mental state and use of the autopen while in office.
Anthony Bernal, who previously served as chief of staff to former first lady Jill Biden, was subpoenaed for his testimony by the House Oversight Committee. He declined to answer questions, invoking the protections that prevent people from being forced to testify against themselves in government proceedings.
“Well, unfortunately, that was quick,” said Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, after the deposition ended. “I believe the American people are concerned. They’re 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.”
BREAKING – Jill Biden’s longtime aide Anthony Bernal has just pleaded the Fifth during a probe into Biden’s fitness and the autopen scandal. His refusal marks two of four Biden officials now invoking the Fifth as investigations intensify. pic.twitter.com/vVPICQVLwP
— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) July 16, 2025
Bernal ignored questions from reporters as he entered and exited the House Oversight Committee’s hearing room on Capitol Hill. He was accompanied by his lawyer, Jonathan Su, who was a deputy White House counsel to the former president. Su in a statement provided to the committee noted that pleading the Fifth is not evidence of wrongdoing.
The former president has dismissed the inquiries as legally spurious. In a recent interview with the New York Times, Biden admitted that he had his aides sign pardons on his behalf with an electronic autopen. Biden says he orally directed them to do so.
Comer has has sought testimony from nearly a dozen former Biden aides as he conducts his investigation, including former White House chiefs of staff Ron Klain and Jeff Zients; former senior advisers Mike Donilon and Anita Dunn; former deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, former counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, former deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini and a former assistant to the president, Ashley Williams.
On Tuesday, Comer also subpoenaed Annie Tomasini, a former White House deputy chief of staff, to appear before the committee on July 18. She is the third former official to be subpoenaed by the committee.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
