Ron Klain, who was chief of staff to former President Joe Biden until 2023, is testifying behind closed doors Thursday as part of the latest interview for the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into Biden’s inner circle and his use of the autopen.
Klain entered a House office building at 9:46 a.m. and did not take any questions from reporters, including why Biden was taking Ambien ahead of his 2024 presidential debate against President Donald Trump, as Hunter Biden revealed in a recent interview.
“Americans want to know was Joe Biden, in fact, aware of what the autopen was being used to sign his name on, or was, in fact, some family members or high level officials in the Biden administration just acting unilaterally as President of the United States and using the autopen,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said.
Before serving in the Biden administration, Klain had a long history in government service. He worked in the Senate as chief counsel of the Judiciary Committee and staff director of the Democratic Leadership Committee. He also served as the associate counsel for judicial selection under President Clinton, chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore, chief of staff and counselor to the US Attorney General, and chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden. Klain is the chief legal officer at Airbnb and got his law degree from Harvard.
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He is the first witness to appear this week in the wide-ranging autopen investigation into whether the president was aware that government documents, including a wave of pardons, were signed with his automatic signature. Two former Biden aides and his physician pleaded the Fifth Amendment when they appeared for their deposition in recent weeks after being subpoenaed. Two former aides—Neera Tanden and Ashley Williams—have participated in the transcribed interviews, but those transcripts have not yet been made public.
The committee has continued to expand the investigation following the release of Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book, Original Sin. Comer has questioned the former president’s use of autopen for pardons and executive orders and whether his aides covered up his alleged health decline. The book claims Klain spoke on the subject of whether the former president should run again with other staff, but the conversations did not go anywhere.
“He delegated to his staff to determine who to pardon,” Comer said. “That’s not how the pardon process works.”
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Trump waived executive privilege last month for all of the former aides in the investigation. Executive privilege allows the witness to withhold information from Congress to protect the integrity of the executive branch.
The transcripts from the closed-door interviews are slated to be made public. Comer told the Washington Examiner last month that no interviews will be released before all of them have concluded, but footage of those who invoked their Fifth Amendment Rights was released the evening after they concluded. Transcribed interviews are typically conducted by the majority and minority committee staff over several hours. The slated interviews are set to take place through September.