WASHINGTON (AP) – House Republicans on Thursday formally sent a report too the Justice Department alleging a ”cover-up” of President Biden’s cognitive state and questioning the validity of executive actions signed via autopen. the report, the culmination of a months-long investigation, alleges White House staff concealed Biden’s alleged decline and calls for further scrutiny of Biden’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, and senior aides Anthony Bernal and Annie Tomasini, all of whom invoked their Fifth Amendment rights during testimony.
The report draws heavily on publicly available data, including polls regarding Biden’s approval rating and perceptions of his public speaking and age.It claims White House record-keeping was “so lax that the chain of custody for a given decision is tough or impractical to establish,” but does not provide specific examples of policy violations or decisions made without Biden’s awareness.
Republicans are demanding the Justice department investigate O’Connor, Bernal, and Tomasini. They also sent a letter to the D.C. Board of Medicine requesting potential disciplinary action against O’Connor, including possible revocation of his medical license.
A central contention of the report is that executive actions signed using an autopen should be considered invalid without documented proof of Biden’s direct approval. “Barring evidence of executive actions taken during the Biden presidency showing that President Biden indeed took a particular executive action, the committee deems those actions taken thru use of the autopen as void,” the report states.
Democrats and legal experts have cautioned that broad scrutiny of executive actions could create legal challenges for both the Trump governance and congressional Republicans, who have also utilized autopens for policy implementation. The report does not include full transcripts of witness testimony.
According to the report,the White House staff “organized one of the largest scandals in American history – hiding a cognitively failing president and refusing any means of confirmation of such demise.”