House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) is asking former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and three other Biden administration aides to testify before his committee as he expands his investigation into the use of an autopen.
The chairman will send four more letters to Jean-Pierre, former Biden communication aides Ian Sams and Andrew Bates, and former chief of staff Jeff Zients, requesting their appearance before the committee’s majority and minority counsel for closed-door, transcribed interviews.
“President Biden’s inner circle repeatedly told the American people that he was ‘sharp as ever,’ dismissing any commentary about his obvious mental decline as ‘gratuitous,’” Comer said in a statement.
A handful of interviews are expected to be conducted in the coming weeks after the first witness, Neera Tanden, testified Tuesday.
The second witness, Anthony Bernal, refused to appear before the committee to testify in its investigation after the White House said the witnesses were not protected by executive privilege, per a letter sent Tuesday. Executive privilege allows the witness to withhold information from Congress to protect the integrity of the executive branch. The committee went on to subpoena the former senior adviser to former first lady Jill Biden.
“As part of our aggressive investigation into the cover-up of his cognitive decline and potentially unauthorized executive actions, we must hear from those who aided and abetted this farce,” Comer continued in his statement.
ANTHONY BERNAL ABRUPTLY CANCELS HOUSE OVERSIGHT TESTIMONY FOR BIDEN AUTOPEN INVESTIGATION
While the interviews are conducted behind closed doors, the transcripts are expected to be made public, according to a spokesperson for the committee. Comer told the Washington Examiner that no interview transcripts will be released before all of them have concluded.
A large part of this push by the GOP comes after the release of Jake Tapper’s book, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. Comer has leaned into the former president’s use of an autopen for pardons and executive orders, along with an investigation into the “cover-up” of his “mental decline.” The chairman called it a “historic scandal.”