Former top aide to Jill Biden subpoenaed in House GOP's Biden age probe
The subpoena — signed Thursday by Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican Oversight chairman — requires Bernal to appear for a deposition on July 16. It came after several weeks of back-and-forth with Bernal's lawyer over the timing of a voluntary interview, which Comer says ended with Bernal withdrawing from an interview scheduled for Thursday.
"Given your close connection with both former President Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden, the Committee sought to understand if you contributed to an effort to hide former President Biden's fitness to serve from the American people," a cover letter for the subpoena reads. "To avoid any further delays, your appearance before the Committee is now compelled."
Bernal is the second former Biden staffer to be subpoenaed by the committee and unlikely to be the last. The committee this week heard voluntary testimony from Neera Tanden, a former director of Biden's domestic policy counsel, and is intent on securing interviews with several other members of Biden's inner circle as part of its investigation.
CBS News has reached out to Bernal's attorney for comment.
Comer has also subpoenaed Dr. Kevin O'Connor, who served as Biden's physician at the White House. O'Connor will testify before the committee on July 9. The committee said it compelled O'Connor to testify after his lawyers said he could not appear for an interview, arguing it would violate local laws and ethical rules against doctors disclosing confidential medical information.
It's all part of a Republican effort, supported by President Trump, to investigate the last occupant of the Oval Office. Mr. Trump himself has ordered White House lawyers and the Justice Department to investigate Biden's aides, questioning the legitimacy of his alleged use of the autopen to sign pardons and other documents. Mr. Trump has long suggested that the use of autopen could nullify some of Biden's executive actions, an idea some legal experts have pushed back on.
In a statement earlier this month, Biden called the attacks "ridiculous and false," and said, "I made the decisions during my presidency," including on pardons.
Boosting the GOP investigation, Mr. Trump has waived executive privilege for eight former Biden administration officials to testify to Congress, including Bernal, a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and insisted on anonymity told the Associated Press. Executive privilege is a legal doctrine that allows presidents to keep certain internal communications secret.
With the privilege lifted, former staffers are free to discuss their interactions with Biden while he was president.
Comer said Bernal's attorneys had initially offered to do a transcribed interview on Thursday, but then on Wednesday, his lawyers told the committee he was not willing to appear voluntarily on that date. Comer accused him of "running scared" after the privilege was waived.
In addition to Bernal, executive privilege has been waived for Biden White House senior advisers Mike Donilon and Anita Dunn, former White House chief of staff Ron Klain, former deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, former counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, former deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini and a former assistant to the president, Ashley Williams. Comer is seeking interviews with all of them.
Democrats have dismissed the inquiry into Biden's mental state as a partisan exercise that distracts from other pressing issues.
Rep. Wesley Bell, a Missouri Democrat who sits on the Oversight committee, said after the interview with Tanden that it "was an extraordinary waste of time" and produced "no new evidence."
Bell said lawmakers should focus on issues like the costs of food, housing and potential changes to healthcare policy rather than "dig up some kind of post-impeachment, or whatever we're doing here."
The unfolding investigation has grown in scope in recent weeks, as new reporting emerges about Biden's final year in office — including concerns about his age and the circumstances of his decision not to run for reelection. Biden has long denied that his cognitive abilities had faded while in office.
The probe could have significant implications for politics and policy. Republican lawmakers have argued that any executive actions or policies enacted through the autopen procedure could be found invalid if Biden were somehow incapacitated or not of a sound state of mind while in office.
Mr. Trump and his allies have claimed, without evidence, that Biden was not aware of the actions his administration had taken on a range of issues, including on pardons, environmental policy and labor rights, among other issues.
A move to reverse such executive actions, which would almost certainly face legal scrutiny and a battle in the courts, could impact scores of executive orders taken throughout Biden's term.
"Let this subpoena send a clear message to Biden's inner circle: We will stop at nothing to expose the truth about Joe Biden's decline (and) unauthorized use of the autopen," Comer wrote on social media.
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How gerrymandering has reshaped the political map for red and blue states
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Elbridge Gerry signed a bill that redrew the state's congressional maps to benefit the Democratic-Republican party. Maps are typically redrawn at the beginning of each decade to reflect changes in the population from the latest census. Kareem Crayton, the vice president of the Washington D.C. office of the Brennan Center for Justice, who has spent years researching redistricting, told ABC News the redistricting campaigns since the 2000s have led to a systemic cycle of gerrymandering, especially in the South. MORE: Texas redistricting: What's at stake as Republicans aim to pick up 5 House seats "States like Florida and Texas have the worst examples of gerrymandering," he said. But Crayton also pointed out that states with Democratic majorities, like Illinois, have responded with their own maps that also skew districts in their favor, leading to an endless cycle. "All of these states are looking around at each other like 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' thinking who's going to fire first," he said, referring to the Western film. "There is no sheriff in town saying this is not helping everyone." While Republican and Democratic leaders in those states have contended they are redrawing their maps to adequately reflect their communities, Wang said the math and geography aren't backing their arguments. Wang's lab created a mathematical algorithm that creates district maps using key demographic factors. Racial demographics from the Census, environmental and geographic information from local data and other public sources are used to create district maps that remove political bias. Those maps are then compared to the district maps currently in place. "That tells us what someone who didn't care about political parties would do," he explained. "We have harnessed the power of computer simulation to see what would be neutral." Texas is one of the 15 states in the map that earned an F grade based on the Gerrymander Project's formula. Although the state legislature and congressional delegation are led by a Republican majority, Texas's current districting map is divided in a way that gives the GOP an advantage, according to the project. The analysis shows that the redistricting negates a challenging vote. Travis County, for example, includes the city of Austin, which has leaned Democratic, but the county includes five congressional districts around it. By not including Austin in the suburban areas, the congressional district will lean Republican, according to the analysis. The Gerrymander Project's analysis found that the county splits in Texas, which is the number of districts within a single county, are higher than the average split per state, based on its analysis. MORE: Video Michigan citizens take on gerrymandering with redrawn congressional map For example, more dense Dallas County is home to five congressional districts, and two of the districts' boundaries extend into the next county. Such division leads to confusion among voters as to what their district is, according to Crayton. Crayton said that such county splits have led to more examples of elected officials running unopposed. "If you're a candidate from an opposing party, you're going to have an uphill battle trying to run in a district where the majority of the voters are registered to the majority," he said. "We've seen it happen all of the time where a Democrat or Republican simply won't put the time and effort to run because the gerrymandered district puts the odds against them," Crayton said. Although the majority of the states that got the project's F grade are in the South and show more of a Republican advantage, the experts warned that blue states in other parts of the country have used gerrymandering as well. Illinois, which is one of the Midwest states with an F grade, is the prime example, they said. Its current map, which was adopted in 2021, contains non-compact districts, which leads to unequal voter density per area, and more county splits than the average, according to the Gerrymander Project. One egregious example is the state's 13th congressional district, which covers a nearly 2,300 square mile boundary that extends from its southern point near the border with Missouri to Springfield, right in the center of the state, and then east to the city of Champaign. The boundaries keep a huge concentration of Democratic leaning voters, according to the Gerrymander Project. 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Fed check-in: Waller reportedly top Chair pick, rate cut outlook
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Joining me now, Ben Emmens, Fed Watch Advisors founder and chief investment officer, and John Hilsenrath, Stone X senior advisor and Yahoo Finance contributor. It does seem like and there were some reporting from Wall Street Journal today that the administration is leaning towards appointing someone to fill Adriana Kugler's seat that could then move into the Fed chair spot. Ben, I'll start with you. What do what do you make of this latest reporting on Waller sort of maybe, maybe being the front runner, at least today? Yeah, I think that he is a front runner, but he has said himself that because the president hasn't reached out to him, you know, he doesn't know for sure. And you know, he really wants to do the job. So he's clearly keen to do it. Um, but it's all the speculation around this actual chair, I think it's by far not determined because they have to fill the Adriana Kugler position first, which kind of procedural how they have to go about it. This new Fed chair or Fed member will be only in place for October meeting, not a September meeting because of the the specifics of the Senate confirmation. Yet, that position is key because it's an additional vote at the table for cutting rates. And it looks like a lot of Fed members are ready, like, moving in a direction of like we'll probably have to lower rates in September. So, it just only fuels more the rate cut speculation. I think this debate about who will be the next chair. But who will it be? That's, I think, still a guessing game. And Trump has his time, but I mean, once he puts the replacement for Kugler in place, he could take his time, that's been reported. Right. And John, what do you make it? I mean, it feels like the market is relatively comfortable with a Warsh or a Waller potentially in place here. Uh, the market seems very comfortable with a lot, uh, that's going on in the macro setting right now. Stock prices are rising, interest rates are low, but I don't think that the drama, uh, over this succession is going to end very quickly. And, you know, today we get a headline that it's that it's Waller, tomorrow we might get a headline that it's Warsh again. Uh, I'm really going to believe it when I see it, especially when the president hasn't had one-on-one time with Waller. Let's not forget that Jay Powell was a sitting Fed governor that the president chose, and he ended up becoming very unhappy with Jay Powell. The president said something the other day that sometimes you think someone is great and then he gets in the job and you're not so sure. So I I I think that we're we're moving into maybe the second or third round of this apprentice, uh, campaign and there there might be 10 episodes before the season is over. I I mean, Ben, does it, you know, what we were saying here about the changing expectations for what's going to happen with rate cuts, does that make it not moot, certainly who is the head of the Fed, but the whole politicization conversation, it seems like that comes off the boil if there are real economic underpinnings and reasons for the Fed to cut rates, right? Yeah, I think so, Julie, because it is a story about inflation, unemployment ultimately. So the reaction to this job support on Friday is telling. The Fed is quite concerned if the unemployment rate goes up too quickly and will act faster than if inflation were to go up a little bit. And they just sort of wait and see what happens with inflation before they do anything. So it is really a point here where we may repeat what happened last year in September when they surprised with 50 base points of a rate cut. It's not in markets currently, but if the unemployment rate goes up a little further from here, that becomes a a real possibility because I think the Fed does not want its forecast of 4.5% unemployment to actually materialize. They want to put in place an insurance to make sure that that actually doesn't happen. So this is really a rate cut speculation ultimately, I think. And it is more notable, as we talked at previous time, that how the tone starts to shift from one Fed member to the other member. Like I wrote today, like dominoes, like it sort of goes from one to the other. You have Muesselem today is kind of hawkish, he may have a different tone. You have Golsby next week, he's also voting member, he may start changing his tone, too. Before you know it, we have a full majority of Fed members ready to cut rates before the meeting starts. So I think that's how it plays out. Yeah. And John, we haven't had a chance to talk since the jobs report, which, as we know, came out worse than estimated. We got CPI also coming next week, which could be really telling here. So, what do you think all of this means for September? Well, I I think the market's getting ahead of itself, frankly. Uh, I think, you know, to me, the key comments that came out from the Fed since that jobs report was John Williams, who is part of Jay Powell's inner circle. And he said, in his view, the job market was still relatively solid, and they want to see more data before they make a decision. I think that the, you know, the Fed doesn't want to get pinned down to September. I think they certainly don't want to get pinned down to 50 basis points in September. Look, they did that last year, and it seems to have been a mistake. They seems to have moved too aggressively last year because inflation stopped falling. Literally, the month that the Fed uh did that 50 basis point cut, that was the low point for inflation so far in this cycle. So, you know, I think we're one bad inflation print away from them saying, "Oh, well, wait a second, you know, maybe we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves on this rate cut talk." Well, we'll see what CPI says next week. And lest we forget, we will hear from Chair Powell in Jackson Hole uh later this month as well. Ben, John, got to leave it there. Thank you so much. Related Videos Crypto stock boost, Toyota guidance cut, Zillow revenue beat Miran Talks Trump's Tariffs, Exemptions and Waller Trump to sign EO allowing crypto in 401(k)s: What it means for markets This could be Wall Street's next hot trade Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
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FBI will help track down Texas Democrats who left state, Sen. John Cornyn says
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