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WASHINGTON — Jill Biden’s “work husband” Anthony Bernal became the second former White House aide to take the Fifth Amendment when hauled before a congressional committee Wednesday to answer questions about the 46th president’s cognitive decline.

Bernal, like Joe Biden’s former personal physician Kevin O’Connor, invoked his right against self-incrimination and departed without taking reporter questions.

Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said his legal staff only got to ask a few questions of the Biden family confidant, including: “Was President Joe Biden fit to exercise the duties of the president?” and “Did any unelected official or family member of President Joe Biden execute the duties of the presidency?”


  Anthony Bernal, aide to former first lady Jill Biden, arrives to testify before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday, July 16, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington. AP Anthony Bernal, aide to former first lady Jill Biden, arrives to testify before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday, July 16, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington. AP

  Bernal became the second former White House aide to plead the Fifth Amendment when questioned about former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. AP Bernal became the second former White House aide to plead the Fifth Amendment when questioned about former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. AP

“Did President Joe Biden ever instruct you to lie regarding his health at any time including — but not limited — in your testimony to Congress today?” Oversight chief counsel Jake Greenberg also asked, according to a video released by the committee later Wednesday showing rare footage of the deposition.

As part of the Oversight’s inquiry into potential abuses of the executive authority, Bernal was further grilled about whether he ever “advise[d] President Joe Biden to pardon his son Hunter Biden.”

“I think that the American people are concerned,” Comer told reporters. “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.”

“This is a historic scandal and Americans demand transparency and accountability,” the chairman said in a subsequent statement.

O’Connor, who served as Biden’s doctor during his vice presidency and presidency, took the Fifth last Friday when asked if he was ever told to “lie about the president’s health” or believed the president was “unfit to execute his duties.”


  Bernal departed without taking reporter questions. AP Bernal departed without taking reporter questions. AP

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), a member of the Oversight panel, has maintained that Biden “completely understood what was going on” and “may get fumbled up by words, but that’s not anything new and it’s not anything that came with age.”

But Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) said Bernal’s hasty retreat implicates him in “corruption at the highest level.”

“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 told reporters.

“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.”


  Jill Biden and an aide arrive at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building during Hunter Biden’s gun trial. Getty Images Jill Biden and an aide arrive at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building during Hunter Biden’s gun trial. Getty Images

Donalds, who is running for governor of Florida next year, added that Jill Biden herself should “come in here and answer questions” after her deputy declined to do so.

“I think [former Vice President] Kamala Harris [also] needs to come in and tell us what she knew and when she knew it,” the congressman also threatened.

Jill Biden often called Bernal her “work husband,” according to the book “American Woman,” published last year by New York Times reporter Katie Rogers — who wrote in the tome on first ladies that Bernal is “known to make life hell for junior aides who find him to be impatient, demanding, and overbearing.”

Comer noted that his panel would continue with transcribed interviews and depositions of key Biden White House aides to determine the scale of the purported cover-up of the president’s mental decline, as well as potential “illegal use of the autopen” to grant pardons.


  Anthony Bernal, center, a former senior aide to former first lady Jill Biden, arrives for a deposition on July 16, 2025. AP Anthony Bernal, center, a former senior aide to former first lady Jill Biden, arrives for a deposition on July 16, 2025. AP

Biden’s deputy chief of staff, Annie Tomasini, requested through her lawyer to be handed a subpoena in order to testify this Friday, making her the fifth aide to face questioning from lawmakers and staff.

Neera Tanden, a senior adviser who became director of the Domestic Policy Counsel, and Ashley Williams, deputy director of Oval Office operations, sat for transcribed interviews without taking the Fifth before the brief depositions with Brenal and O’Connor.

Asked whether there was an effort in the White House to cover up Biden’s cognitive decline, Tanden told reporters after her June 24 interview: “Absolutely not.”

Biden “admitted he didn’t know everything, he didn’t sign off on every individual pardon,” Comer added, referencing the ex-commander in chief’s recent interview with The New York Times.


  President Joe Biden told The New York Times he didn’t off on every individual pardon. AFP via Getty Images President Joe Biden told The New York Times he didn’t off on every individual pardon. AFP via Getty Images

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

The retired president told The Times that he “made every decision” regarding executive clemencies issued during his term — but emails showed White House chief of staff Jeff Zients wielded the autopen to approve 25 warrants for pardons and commutations between last December and January.

“We’re talking about a lot of people,” said Biden in defense of his actions. Two of the warrants had commuted sentences for thousands of convicts


  Joe Biden came under scrutiny for his use of the autopen. AP Joe Biden came under scrutiny for his use of the autopen. AP

Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other members of the Biden family received preemptive pardons on Jan. 20, authorized with the autopen because the president worried his successor would pursue “vindictive” prosecutions.

The autopen has been used by presidents at least as far back as Harry S. Truman, but the Biden White House’s sweeping use of the mechanical device amid public concerns about his diminishing cognitive acuity have drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and journalists alike.

President Trump’s Justice Department is also probing the autopen controversy to see whether any aides “abused the power of Presidential signatures.”


  Former President Biden has come under scrutiny for his health and autopen use during his presidency. AFP via Getty Images Former President Biden has come under scrutiny for his health and autopen use during his presidency. AFP via Getty Images

In some cases, staff secretary Stefanie Feldman used only written accounts of the president’s approval before putting documents into the autopen for signatures, The Times reported, even when the assistants who drafted the “blurbs” weren’t in the room with Biden.

“That’s a crime to do that to the country,” Trump charged on The Post’s “Pod Force One” podcast when asked about the alleged autopen abuse.

“I don’t think he knew he was doing it. I think that people took over the autopen, they got things signed that shouldn’t have been signed.”

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