A top former Biden administration aide invoked the Fifth Amendment during her closed-door deposition with the House Oversight Committee on Friday, Fox News Digital was told.
Annie Tomasini becomes the third Democratic ex-official to stonewall investigators looking into whether signs of former President Joe Biden’s alleged mental decline were covered up by his inner circle.
The former White House deputy chief of staff was seen entering the committee room in under an hour, saying nothing to reporters either time.
A source familiar with the discussions told Fox News Digital that she invoked the Fifth Amendment multiple times, which likely is what led to the hasty meeting.
Tomasini is the third ex-Biden administration official to come before committee investigators under subpoena, and the fifth to appear overall.
She was meant to appear Friday for a voluntary transcribed interview, but a committee aide previously told Fox News Digital that Tomasini’s lawyers had asked House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., to issue a subpoena specifically.
Both prior officials who appeared under subpoena – ex-White House physician Kevin O’Connor and Anthony Bernal, a longtime aide to ex-First Lady Jill – also invoked the Fifth Amendment.
Comer is investigating allegations that Biden’s former top White House aides covered up signs of his mental and physical decline while in office, and whether any executive actions were commissioned via autopen without the president’s full knowledge. Biden allies have pushed back against those claims.
In an interview with The New York Times on Thursday, Biden affirmed he ‘made every decision’ on his own.
But Republicans have repeatedly accused those who have pleaded the Fifth Amendment so far of intentionally hiding critical information about the former president, even as their attorneys argue it is not an admission of guilt.