WASHINGTON — House Republicans are weighing calling former first lady Jill Biden and other family members of former President Joe Biden to answer questions about his cognitive decline while in office after ex-White House deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini became the third key aide to take the Fifth Amendment.

“There is now a pattern of key Biden confidants seeking to shield themselves from criminal liability for this potential conspiracy,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) declared Friday after Tomasini invoked her right against self-incrimination and declined to say whether the White House “instructed her to lie” about the president’s health.

“She also pleaded the Fifth when asked if she ever advised President Biden on the handling of classified documents found in his garage, if President Biden or anyone in the White House instructed her to conceal or destroy classified material found at President Biden’s home or office, and if she ever conspired with anyone in the White House to hide information regarding the Biden family’s ‘business’ dealings,” added Comer.

“It’s apparent they would rather hide key information to protect themselves and Joe Biden than be truthful with the American people about this historic scandal.”

Jill Biden’s former chief of staff Anthony Bernal took the Fifth before the Oversight panel on Wednesday, prompting Comer to tell Fox News that evening that “the odds of calling in Jill Biden increased significantly.”

“We had her chief of staff, her self-proclaimed work husband, there for what we planned to be an eight-hour deposition,” he told “Hannity.” “He kept invoking the Fifth Amendment and his lawyer finally said, ‘You can ask all the questions you want. We’re gonna invoke the Fifth Amendment on every question.’

“So we need to know: Was Jill Biden the one calling the shots while Joe Biden was incapacitated?”

“I think the possibility is very good that we’ll be asking members of the family to come in,” Comer reiterated Friday.

Biden’s personal physician Kevin O’Connor pleaded the Fifth last week.

Special counsel Robert Hur determined in a February 2024 report that the former president “willfully” retained classified files from his vice presidency but chose not to charge him, in part because a jury would likely view him as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”

Tomasini was one of the first Biden aides dispatched to take inventory of papers in March 2021 at the Penn Biden Center, where some of the sensitive files were later found by his lawyers and turned over to the authorities.

The panel’s probe is hoping to also uncover potential abuses of the presidential autopen, a mechanical device that Biden’s White House confirmed had been used to grant final pardons for family members.

Former White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, who was asked Thursday to come in for a transcribed interview with Oversight lawmakers and staff, had approved those preemptive pardons in a Jan. 19 email, reported by The New York Times.

Bernal refused to answer when asked whether he ever “advise[d] President Joe Biden to pardon his son Hunter Biden.”

Tomasini began her career as a press secretary for then-Senator Joe Biden (D-Del.) when he chaired the chamber’s Foreign Relations Committee in the 2000s.

She initially agreed to come before the Oversight panel willingly, but reversed her decision earlier this week. Her lawyer requested a subpoena to compel her appearance in front of the Oversight panel.

Tomasini, Bernal, Jill Biden and ex-special assistant Ashley Williams all shielded the president from the public in what some have dubbed operation “Bubble Wrap.” 

Oversight Republicans announced Thursday that the investigation into Biden’s decline and autopen use will continue with a new slate of hearings.

Four additional members of Biden’s inner circle, including ex-White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, have been invited for a series of voluntary transcribed interviews that will be carried out in August and September.

Ian Sams, a former White House counsel office spokesperson, will be the first to come before the committee on August 21.

Andrew Bates, who served as Biden’s deputy press secretary, is scheduled to appear Sept. 5.

Jean-Pierre, who became persona non grata in Bidenworld after announcing a forthcoming book and change of party affiliation to independent in June, will follow him, appearing on September 12 to answer questions.

Zients will be interviewed Sept. 18.

Other members of the president’s inner circle will also be interviewed, with another former White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, set to appear Tuesday.

“We’re going to bring in everyone. We’re moving up the line,” Comer said. “We’ve started with the lower level staffers that we think were the ones that actually put the documents in the autopen and pressed power. Now we’re moving up to the people that we think told the staffers to use the autopen.

“So, we’ll see where that takes us.”