House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., subpoenaed Anthony Bernal, who served as chief of staff for first lady Jill Biden and as an assistant to President Joe Biden, to testify at a deposition Wednesday.
Bernal refused to appear for a transcribed interview on June 26 as part of the Oversight Committee’s investigation into the alleged cover-up of Biden’s mental decline and potentially unauthorized use of autopen for pardons and other executive actions.
He had previously confirmed he would appear for the interview, but when the White House Counsel’s Office notified him it was waiving executive privilege, Bernal said he would no longer appear for the interview.
‘It’s abundantly clear that Anthony Bernal – Jill Biden’s so-called ‘work husband’ – never intended to be transparent about Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and the ensuing cover-up. With no privilege left to hide behind, Mr. Bernal is now running scared, desperate to bury the truth,’ Comer said.
Two recent books about the Biden administration have painted an unflattering picture of Bernal’s political rise.
By proxy, the first lady’s top aide became one of the most influential people in the White House, according to ‘Original Sin,’ a book by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson.
‘He would not be welcome at my funeral,’ a longtime Biden aide told the authors.
Operating in a White House anchored in loyalty, Bernal wielded loyalty as a weapon to weed out the defectors, Tapper and Thompson said.
And Bernal earned a reputation for trash-talking fellow aides, as ‘some even described him as the worst person they had ever met,’ Tapper and Thompson said.
Jill Biden and Bernal worked in tandem, keeping score of ‘who was with them and against them,’ according to Tapper and Thompson.
A former White House staffer fired back against Tapper and Thompson’s allegations about Bernal in a statement to Fox News Digital.
‘A lot of vignettes in this book are either false, exaggerated, or purposefully omit viewpoints that don’t fit the narrative they want to push. Anthony was a strong leader with high standards and a mentor to many. He’s the type of person you want on a team – he’s incredibly strategic, effective, and cares deeply about the people he manages,’ the former White House staffer said in May.
‘2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,’ released last week by Josh Dawsey of The Wall Street Journal, Tyler Pager of The New York Times and Isaac Arnsdor of The Washington Post, outlines how Bernal’s political influence grew alongside Jill Biden.
‘He quickly bonded with Jill Biden and never left her side, becoming unflinchingly loyal to her and using his proximity to her to exert power wherever he decided. It was often unclear if the opinion he was expressing was his own or the first lady’s. Sometimes, when donors or voters asked her questions, Bernal would jump in to answer,’ the authors said.
Lindy Li, a former DNC fundraiser and Democratic insider who had a front-row seat to Biden’s presidency, told Fox News Digital, ‘People like Anthony Bernal. I saw him running the White House like he was in charge, like he was a king. It’s just so amazing now to see him dodge a subpoena and completely dodge accountability. He can run, but he can’t hide. His name is going to go down in infamy forever.’
Li said Bernal ‘followed Jill around like a dog.’ However, Li clarified that he ran the East Wing more than the West Wing. She said Bernal was among those running the White House during Biden’s presidency.
Democratic strategist Michael LaRosa, who served as press secretary to Jill Biden, told Fox News Digital that, ‘No one spent more time, whether it was in the motorcade, on the plane, in the private residence at the White House, Camp David, and at both houses in Delaware, nobody spent more personal time around them and their family and the Biden family than Anthony.’
Bernal and a Biden spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on this article.
Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.