THE CENTER SQUARE—As key witnesses in the investigation into former President Joe Biden’s mental decline continue to evade U.S. House questioning by invoking their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, lawmakers could grant them immunity to encourage them to talk, according to a legal expert.
Three witnesses close to the former president pleaded the fifth during depositions before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in less than two weeks, with more likely to come.
Committee chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said the witnesses, Annie Tomasini, who served as an assistant to the former president and deputy director of Oval Office Operations, former first lady Jill Biden’s chief of staff, Anthony Bernal, and Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s physician, have pleaded the Fifth in “a pattern … seeking to shield themselves from criminal liability.”
Attorney and legal scholar John Shu notes that the committee could grant certain congressional witnesses immunity, a common tactic that would require them to testify because they no longer could self-incriminate and be subject to prosecution.
“Both the DOJ and Congress have been known to grant immunity. It would prevent witnesses from asserting the Fifth Amendment, because once you have immunity you can’t be prosecuted,” Shu said.
None of the witnesses, including those who have yet to appear, have been charged with any crime. However, echoing Comer’s assertion that the witnesses may be shielding themselves from criminal liability, Shu argues they could be pleading the fifth to avoid self-incrimination.
“Those witnesses will still want to avoid any kind of self-incrimination, even if they themselves didn’t commit a crime, because they may have been part of a conspiracy to commit a crime or they may have lied in some other setting. While we don’t know whether there was a criminal conspiracy, certainly a witness wouldn’t want to talk about his or her participation in it,” said Shu.
Biden opened the door for Congress to subpoena White House officials and aides. The former president waived executive privilege for Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon, who served during Trump’s first administration.
A House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots subpoenaed Navarro and Bannon. The pair refused to comply with the subpoenas and were subsequently imprisoned for Congressional contempt.
Shu noted, “What goes around, comes around … Executive privilege goes with the office, not the president”—meaning when Trump took office in January, he inherited the right to waive the same privilege for Biden officials, leading to the former president’s aides being subpoenaed.
“Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal know that, and that’s partially why they didn’t assert executive privilege and instead pled the fifth, because Trump waived their privilege,” said Shu.
Questions regarding Biden’s mental fitness were raised well before the 2020 presidential election. Republicans and many in the conservative media continued to raise questions regarding the former president’s health throughout his presidency.
However, the White House claimed Biden received regular medical exams, showing a healthy, competent president.
The House committee announced in early June that it was expanding its investigation into the “cover-up” of Biden’s “mental decline.”
Comer sent letters to five former senior Biden White House aides, “demanding they appear for transcribed interviews.” Comer’s committee is investigating “potentially unauthorized issuance of sweeping pardons and other executive action.”
The investigations have been fueled in part by a book written by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, “Original Sin,” which the congressman quoted as claiming, “Five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board.”
Karine Jean-Pierre, who served as Biden’s press secretary; Ian Sams, former assistant to the president and senior advisor in the White House Counsel’s Office; Andrew Bates, former deputy assistant to the president and senior deputy press secretary; and Jeff Zients, Biden’s former chief of staff, have also been called to testify in front of the committee.
