The House Oversight Committee on Thursday expanded its investigation into former President Joe Biden‘s cognitive decline and the use of an autopen to authorize high-level executive actions, adding four more transcribed interviews with senior Biden aides to its schedule this fall.
The committee, chaired by Rep. James Comer (R-KY), has scheduled interviews with Ian Sams, Andrew Bates, Karine Jean-Pierre, and Jeff Zients, according to a committee aide. All four officials held top White House posts during the final months of the Biden presidency and were involved in either communications or policy implementation tied to clemency and other executive actions.
Sams, formerly a special assistant to the president and senior adviser in the White House Counsel’s Office, is set to appear on Aug. 21. Bates, who served as deputy assistant to Biden and senior deputy press secretary, will be interviewed on Sept. 5. Jean-Pierre, Biden’s former press secretary, is scheduled for Sept. 12, followed by Zients, Biden’s final chief of staff, on Sept. 18.
A New York Times report published earlier this week suggested the Biden White House relied on a complicated web of aides to carry out mass pardons by applying predetermined eligibility criteria that Biden said he approved in advance, rather than having the former president review each case individually. According to internal communications obtained by the outlet, the process involved lower-level staff preparing clemency recommendations based on those criteria, which were then approved by senior officials, including Zients and former White House Counsel Ed Siskel, before being sent to former White House Staff Secretary Stefanie Feldman for final sign-off and autopen execution.
While the report indicated that Biden said he participated in meetings about high-profile cases, including the pardons of his chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, and former Gen. Mark Milley, Biden confirmed that he signed only one clemency warrant during his presidency: a December 2024 pardon for his son, Hunter Biden.
The committee has heard from several former Biden aides in closed-door interviews, including Neera Tanden, Ronald Klain, Steve Ricchetti, Mike Donilon, Ashley Williams, Bruce Reed, and Anita Dunn. Three witnesses, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Anthony Bernal, and Annie Tomasini, have been subpoenaed. O’Connor and Bernal pleaded the Fifth during depositions earlier this month, while Tomasini, earlier this week, backed out of her previous plans to answer the committee’s questions voluntarily on Friday.
The investigation centers on whether Biden’s inner circle circumvented constitutional requirements by authorizing executive actions without his direct involvement, and whether those decisions were made while Biden was not mentally competent enough to approve them.
Republicans’ concerns stem from various incidents throughout Biden’s presidency in which staff carefully guarded him from the press, guided him on where he needed to walk, and provided him detailed notes on how to handle the press, as well as his disastrous debate with then-candidate Donald Trump last summer, during which Biden stumbled over his words and failed to string together cogent sentences.
BIDEN’S STAFF APPROVED MASS LAST-MINUTE PARDONS WITH AUTOPEN
Comer has framed the matter as one of the most serious constitutional scandals in modern history, citing concerns over the lack of transparency and the possible invalidity of presidential actions. Trump has echoed those concerns and ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate whether certain clemency grants should be considered null and void.
Though emails published by the New York Times outline some of the process, much of the Biden White House’s internal correspondence remains under wraps. The Senate investigative subcommittee is seeking access to thousands of additional emails referenced in that reporting.