Biden aides testifying before House panel denied executive privilege
The article reports that the Trump management has denied executive privilege to nine aides of President Joe Biden, who are set to testify before the House Oversight Committee. This decision allows the aides, including Neera Tanden, to provide testimony regarding allegations of a cover-up related to Biden’s mental decline. Tanden has already testified, and the White House stated that the assertion of executive privilege is not justified in this context. The committee, led by Chairman James Comer, is investigating the decision-making process during Biden’s last two years in office, specifically looking into instances where Biden’s signature was replaced by an autopen for executive orders. Other aides who will testify include several senior advisers who, like Tanden, will not have the protections of executive privilege. The committee intends to eventually release the transcripts of the closed-door interviews. Biden has contested the allegations against him, asserting that he made the decisions during his presidency.
Biden aides testifying before House Oversight denied executive privilege by Trump
The Trump administration has denied executive privilege to the nine aides of former President Joe Biden slated to testify before the House Oversight Committee regarding the allegations that there was a cover-up of the former president’s “mental decline.”
The first witness, Neera Tanden, testified before the Oversight majority and minority counsel Tuesday, and was not protected by executive privilege per a letter sent by the White House Tuesday. Executive privilege allows the witness to withhold information from Congress to protect the integrity of the executive branch. The rest of the witnesses will also be denied the same protections as the investigation progresses.
“In light of unique and extraordinary nature of the matters under investigation, President Trump has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the national interest, and therefore not justified, with respect to particular subjects within the purview of the House Oversight Committee,” read the nine letters obtained by the Washington Examiner.
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The next closed-door hearing is set for Thursday with Anthony Bernal, a senior adviser to former first lady Jill Biden. The interview will likely be similar to Tanden’s, which lasted over four hours and included a lunch break. A couple of members from both parties briefly entered the room during the interview.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) told the Washington Examiner Tuesday the committee wants answers about “who was calling the shots” during Biden’s final two years in office. The committee will also continue to investigate why the president’s signature was increasingly replaced by the use of an autopen to sign certain executive orders.
Both Tanden and Bernal received these letters, along with the seven other aides who will testify as well: Annie Tomasini, Ashley Williams, Michael Donilon, Anita Dunn, Ronald Klain, Bruce Reed, and Steve Ricchetti.
The letters claim that there is “Evidence that aides to former President Biden concealed information regarding his fitness to exercise the powers of the President — and may have unconstitutionally exercised those powers themselves to aid in their concealment — implicates both Congress’ constitutional and legislative powers.”
Before these letters were sent, one of the most notable recent instances of waiving executive privilege was the Biden administration’s use of it in relation to the Jan. 6 investigation.
Biden has pushed back on all allegations of the autopen usage saying, “I was the one who made the decisions,” arguing that the whole investigation is politically motivated.
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The transcripts from the closed-door interviews are slated to be made public, according to a spokesperson for the committee. Comer told the Washington Examiner that no interviews will be released before all of them have concluded. Transcribed interviews are typically conducted by committee staff over the course of several hours, and both parties are granted extended time for questioning, compared to the five-minute increments afforded to members during publicly televised hearings.
The chairman said the committee is especially focused on whether any executive actions were authorized without Biden’s explicit approval, and whether the autopen was used to bypass the president at any point during his tenure.
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