The White House counsel Tuesday said ex-Biden aide Neera Tanden is not shielded by executive privilege and thus must provide “unrestricted testimony” on former President Joe Biden’s mental acuity.
The decision was issued before Tanden appeared before the GOP-led House Oversight Committee for closed-door testimony Tuesday to give insights for the panel’s investigation of Biden’s cognition and use of autopen.
Executive privilege is the right that presidents enjoy to keep some of their internal communications confidential. It was invoked by several alumni of the first Trump administration during Democrat-led congressional scrutiny.
“After balancing the Legislative and Executive Branch interests, as required under the accommodation process, it is the President’s view that this presents an exceptional situation in which the congressional need for information outweighs the Executive Branch’s interest in maintaining confidentiality,” wrote Gary Lawkowski, deputy White House counsel, in a letter to Tanden.
“President Trump has determined that he will not assert immunity to preclude you from testifying before the House Oversight Committee,” he added.
Lawkowski stressed that the probe is aimed at “determining the validity of prior executive actions,” which is why it’s “an exceptional situation.”
Tanden served as a senior adviser to Biden from 2021 to 2023. Early on, Biden nominated her to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), but she lacked the votes needed because of a party defection by former Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV), who cited her mean social-media posts, among other concerns.
Later, Biden made Tanden his director of the Domestic Policy Council to help advise on critical policymaking issues.
At the end of Trump’s first term, multiple former administration members repeatedly invoked executive privilege as a means of pushing back against congressional subpoenas, particularly from the since-defunct House Select Jan. 6 Committee.
Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon and top trade adviser Peter Navarro famously declined to testify or furnish documents to the Jan. 6 panel. They were later prosecuted for contempt of Congress and served time in jail as a result.
The Oversight Committee has pursued interviews with a slew of Biden administration alumni for its sweeping investigation into the former president’s mental state and whether his executive orders were legitimate.
Upcoming testimony will include that of former Biden senior aides Anthony Bernal, Ashley Williams and Annie Tomasini, none of whom were subpoenaed.
Bernthal, who previously served as the chief of staff to former first Lady Jill Biden — and is generally seen as the most powerful person to ever hold that position — is set to talk to the panel Thursday.
Additionally, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who served as the former White House physician for Biden, is slated to appear for testimony July 9.
In tandem with the Oversight Committee investigation into Biden and his use of the autopen, the Trump administration is pursuing multiple related probes.
Earlier this month, Trump instructed US Attorney General Pam Bondi to initiate an inquiry into Biden’s autopen use.
Biden has downplayed concerns about his mental condition and insisted that he made the decisions behind everything that had his autopen signature.
“I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false,” Biden said in a statement earlier this month.
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