The Silence From Inside Biden’s White House Keeps Getting Louder
Why Are Biden's Aides Clamming Up?
Another Biden staffer has invoked their Fifth Amendment rights rather than talk to the House Oversight Committee.
Committee Chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said Anthony Bernal pleaded the Fifth when GOP lawmakers asked him whether former President Biden ever instructed him to lie about his health or “if any unelected official or family members executed the duties of the president.”
“It’s no surprise that Anthony Bernal is pleading the Fifth Amendment to shield himself from criminal liability,” Comer said in a statement, following months of criticism for the former president’s staffers.
Anthony Bernal’s choice to plead the Fifth comes on the heels of Joe Biden’s White House physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights rather than discuss question of Biden’s physical and mental health.
As with Dr. O’Connor, legally we can neither infer nor impute to Anthony Bernal—Jill Biden’s “work husband” within the White House staff—any malfeasance or criminality simply from his retreat behind his Constitutional rights.
No one can be compelled to give evidence against himself, and that includes Anthony Bernal.
Yet Bernal is still the second White House staffer to plead the Fifth. Interestingly, there has been no reporting of any proffer of testimony by Bernal in return for a grant of immunity from prosecution. If Bernal did have damaging testimony to give and wished to be shielded from prosecution, there are well-established legal procedures for him to testify and not incriminate himself.
Does this mean that Bernal does not have damaging testimony? Perhaps.
Does this mean that Bernal cannot implicate others, only himself? Again, perhaps.
The questions we would ponder in response to Dr. O’Connor’s decision to plead the Fifth are the same we should ponder in response to Anthony Bernal’s choice to do the same.
While legally we cannot draw any meaningful conclusions from Bernal’s choice, the court of public opinion is not constrained by such legal niceties. People can and invariably will speculate on the decisions by White House staffers to invoke their Constitutional rights rather than give testimony regarding their time in the White House.
While one staffer pleading the Fifth is a curiosity, two staffers is the start of a pattern. If that pattern expands to more potential witnesses for the House Oversight Committee, people will naturally begin to ponder why so many staffers are so fearful of potential prosecution.
Anthony Bernal has every right to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights rather than give testimony before Congress.
People have every right to wonder why he feels compelled to do so, and what the significance of that choice might be.
The “drip, drip, drip” is getting louder and louder.
This scandal is not going away.
Peter, maybe you can think of a previous situation - a racketeering case, or an Enron-type business crime case - where everyone with inside knowledge pleaded the fifth. What eventually happened, how was the case resolved? I’m wondering where this Biden coverup will lead, and hoping it’s not to a dead end. It’s very important to America that the individuals who perpetuated Biden’s dementia coverup be brought to justice!