Three top White House officials were summoned on Wednesday by the Republican-led House of Representatives Oversight Committee, which demanded they appear on July 17 for depositions over Democratic President Joe Biden’s health.
The committee subpoenaed senior adviser Ashley Williams, deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini, and top staffer Anthony Bernal for first lady Jill Biden, according to Axios.
“Key White House staff must come before our committee so that we can provide the transparency and accountability that Americans deserve,” said Republican U.S. Representative James Comer, who serves as the panel’s chairman. Comer said that Biden’s team was not being honest and labeled him as “unfit” for office.
In three subpoena cover letters that Comer sent to White House Counsel Edward Siskel on Wednesday, he cites an anonymous Axios report from last week that asserts that a “protective bubble” has formed around Biden inside the White House by Tomasini, Bernal, and Williams – with the president primarily depending “on staff to nudge him with reminders of who he’s meeting, including former staffers and advisers who Biden should easily remember without a reminder from Annie.”
The subpoenas were described as “a baseless political stunt” by White House spokeswoman Ian Sams, who also said that Comer was “weaponizing subpoenas to get headlines instead of seeking information through the proper constitutional process.”
Republicans are still trying to obtain the audio recordings of the president’s conversations with former special counsel Robert Hur, and they have also asked to speak with Biden’s physician, Kevin O’Connor.
In a memo released on Monday, O’Connor clarified that a neurologist with expertise in Parkinson’s disease did not visit the White House on multiple occasions this year to treat the president.
