Veteran Democratic operative Anita Dunn is on Capitol Hill on Thursday for a closed-door interview with House Oversight Committee investigators.
Arriving minutes before 10 a.m. with her counsel in tow, Dunn did not speak to reporters on her way into the door despite a myriad of shouted questions being thrown at her about her upcoming interview.
She is the tenth former White House official to appear before the panel’s lawyers, as Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., probes whether former President Joe Biden’s inner circle worked to cover up signs of mental decline in the elderly leader – and whether executive actions signed via autopen were done without his awareness.
Dunn is appearing voluntarily before the committee’s lawyers for a transcribed interview that will likely last several hours into the afternoon.
Three of the 10 former Biden administration officials who have appeared so far have come under subpoena, and each pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering material questions.
Appearing voluntarily does not give people the ability to invoke the constitutional right against self-incrimination, but it’s possible Dunn will give House investigators little to work with.
The six former White House aides who appeared voluntarily before her have all defended Biden’s mental acuity and ability to serve as president, sources said, even as some, like ex-Chief of Staff Ron Klain, have conceded the 82-year-old’s age has worn on him over time.
Dunn, like those who appeared before her, has known Biden for years.
She’s been a key player in Democratic communications and public relations strategies for decades, and reportedly was a central figure in Biden’s messaging strategy both at the White House and during his short-lived 2024 campaign.
‘She’s running everything,’ one unnamed White House advisor told CNN in June 2023 while discussing Biden’s re-election bid.
A January 2023 report by NBC News described Dunn and her husband, former Obama administration White House counsel Robert Bauer, as central figures in Biden’s orbit. Bauer also reportedly served as Biden’s personal lawyer.
‘If it’s a room of five people, Anita and Bob are two of them,’ an unnamed former White House aide told the outlet.
Dunn was also a central figure amid the fallout after Biden’s disastrous June 2024 debate against then-candidate Donald Trump.
NBC News reported in July 2024 that Biden family members discussed whether he should fire Dunn and Bauer, though White House chief of staff Jeff Zients dismissed the reports as ‘unfounded and insulting rumors’ in a statement to the outlet at the time.
Dunn served as White House communications director under former President Barack Obama, and Biden brought her onto his 2020 campaign to help with his own communications strategy.
She also served as senior advisor to the president for communications in the Biden White House before playing a key role in his 2024 campaign.
Comer wrote in his letter summoning Dunn, ‘You served as former President Biden’s ‘most senior communications adviser.’ Former President Biden confided in you extensively over the past decade.’
‘The Committee seeks to understand your observations of former President Biden’s mental acuity and health as one of his closest advisors. If White House staff carried out a strategy lasting months or even years to hide the chief executive’s condition—or to perform his duties—Congress may need to consider a legislative response,’ Comer wrote.
