The chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Congressman James Comer, says he is prepared to issue subpoenas and potentially introduce criminal referrals against former aides to President Biden. Mr. Comer is seeking answers about the 45th president’s mental capacities during his final years on the job. 

Mr. Comer has been Republicans’ top investigator in the House since the GOP took the majority in 2023, though a failed push to impeach Mr. Biden saw him quickly fade from the headlines. The newfound probe into the former president’s diminishment — and his staff’s use of the autopen — are putting the Kentucky congressman back in the spotlight. 

Last week, Mr. Comer sent letters to five of Mr. Biden’s top White House aides to ask that they come sit before his committee for voluntary interviews — senior advisors Mike Donilon and Anita Dunn; deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed; presidential counselor Steve Richetti, and chief of staff Ron Klain. 

Mr. Comer tells the Sun that if they do not appear for those voluntary interviews, he is prepared to issue subpoenas for all of them. Should that fail, then he will push for criminal referrals. “We’re hoping they come in voluntarily,” Mr. Comer said Monday evening. “If they refuse, I will subpoena them.”

The chairman says he is “100 percent confident” that the aides will come in voluntarily, however, because of the threat of prosecution. Should they be subpoenaed and refuse that summons, then the House has the power to issue criminal referrals, which are then sent to the Department of Justice. 

Mr. Comer says he believes Attorney General Bondi would take up those criminal referrals, unlike when he sought the same from Attorney General Garland, who refused last year to take up a recommendation that both Hunter Biden and James Biden be charged. 

“If they defy the subpoena, then there will be criminal referrals,” Mr. Comer said of the top White House aides. “It’s a different deal with the criminal referrals now.

“The people we’ve asked to come in will come in,” Mr. Comer said. “I think the American people are curious as to who was calling the shots at the White House.”

The Oversight Committee chairman has already issued a subpoena to Dr. Kevin O’Connor — Mr. Biden’s personal physician for 15 years — to appear before the panel.

Mr. Comer said Dr. O’Connor has intimate knowledge of the president’s well-being over the course of his time behind the Resolute Desk, though the physician has said through attorneys that speaking to the committee would violate Washington D.C. law, doctor-patient confidentiality, and medical ethics. 

Mr. Comer confirmed Monday that his staff was still in discussions with lawyers for Dr. O’Connor and the five political aides who are all now being called to testify.