House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer calls for accountability in White House
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The GOP-led House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed three senior White House aides, demanding that they sit for depositions concerning President Biden’s mental state.
Fox News confirmed that the subpoena includes first lady Jill Biden’s top aide, Anthony Bernal, deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini and senior adviser Ashley Williams.
In a press release, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., called for accountability within the White House.
"The White House has shielded three key aides from testifying about President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, and now we’ve learned through reporting these same aides are also seeking to cover up President Biden’s declining cognitive state inside the White House," Comer said.
"President Biden is clearly unfit for office, yet his staff are trying to hide the truth from the American people," he said.
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House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., is demanding that White House aides sit for depositions about President Biden’s mental state. (Getty Images)
The GOP-led committee argued that the top Biden aides were "running interference" for Biden to shield the 81-year-old president from facing scrutiny.
According to one former Biden staffer, Axios first reported, Bernal, Tomasini and Williams have created "a protective bubble around" Biden and that he is "staffed so closely that he’s lost all independence."
The subpoenas, which come following Biden's disastrous debate performance two weeks ago, hope to identify the scope of the three aides' job responsibilities while serving under the administration.
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The three subpoenas, which were sent Wednesday, voice the committee's concerns that top aides are running the country while the president is unable to do so.
"To be clear, the American people did not elect Ms. Williams or any White House staffer to do President Biden’s job for him, and the Committee seeks Ms. Williams testimony regarding the matters identified above," Williams' subpoena reads, in part.
An image from Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation released by the Department of Justice shows President Biden attending a National Security Council meeting with a classified document that was later found in his Delaware garage. (U.S. Department of Justice)
The committee also penned their allegations that Biden's top staff, including Bernal, Tomasini and Williams, were involved in the scandal of the president's alleged mishandling of classified files.
The Oversight Committee said five total White House employees and a Department of Defense employee were involved in "coordinating the organizing, moving, and removing of boxes that were later found to contain classified materials."
Special Counsel Robert Hur, who had investigated Biden’s improper retention of classified records since last year, concluded his investigation in February.
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Hur did not recommend criminal charges against Biden for his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
"We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter," the report states. "We would reach the same conclusion even if the Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president."
The special counsel also described Biden as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
President Biden speaks at a campaign event in Atlanta. (Megan Varner/Getty Images/File)
In a statement to Fox News, Ian Sams, the White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, called the subpoenas a "baseless political stunt."
"Like everything Representative Comer has done over the past year, these subpoenas are a baseless political stunt intended for him to get media attention instead of engaging in legitimate oversight," Sams said.
"His partisan attacks on the President have been discredited, and now he continues to debase the House by weaponizing subpoenas to get headlines instead of seeking information through the proper constitutional process," he added.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House and Comer for comment.
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.
She is a native of Massachusetts and is based in Orlando, Florida.
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