“A top Biden White House aide invoked his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination Wednesday morning in declining to cooperate with Republican-led efforts to investigate the former president’s mental acuity and use of the autopen,” Politico reports.

“Former President Joe Biden is escalating his battle against Republican claims that he might not have been in control of high-profile clemency decisions issued under his name at the end of his term and, more generally, that his cognitive state impaired his functioning in office,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Biden said that he had orally granted all the pardons and commutations issued at the end of his term, calling President Trump and other Republicans ‘liars’ for claiming his aides had used an autopen to do so without his authorization.”

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) said that he believes the Biden administration destroyed key files pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein, the Washington Examiner reports.

“Kevin O’Connor, who served as Joe Biden’s physician while the former president was in office, is refusing to testify in a closed-door interview as part of the House GOP probe into Biden’s mental acuity,” Politico reports.

“O’Connor asserted doctor-patient privilege and his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, according to a statement from his attorneys. He had repeatedly argued his duties as a doctor complicated his testimony and prevented him from sharing some sensitive information.”

New York Times: “The effort by Joe Biden’s inner circle to limit access to him helps explain why it took him more than three weeks to drop his re-election bid after his disastrous debate performance.”

“Within hours of taking office in January, President Donald Trump boasted about attracting $3 trillion in new corporate investments to the United States,” Reuters reports.

“The White House calls it ‘The Trump Effect’ and features a rolling list on its website of more than 70 projects it says Trump’s economic policies spurred.”

“But a Reuters review found that just under half of the claimed spending on the website — totaling more than $1.3 trillion — originated under former President Joe Biden or represented routine spending repackaged to promote domestic investments.”

Wall Street Journal: “On June 3, Hunter Biden reported to a federal courthouse in Wilmington, Del., to face three felony charges for lying on a federal firearms application and possessing a gun while abusing drugs. Beyond the danger to Hunter’s liberty, the trial was sure to embarrass the Biden family, airing sordid secrets from the painful years after Hunter’s brother Beau Biden died of cancer.”

“Much of the public was unaware of the depths of turmoil within the Biden family—affairs, addiction, alcoholism—and now it would all spill out, five months before the election. To prove Hunter Biden was abusing drugs when he purchased the gun, prosecutors planned to call three star witnesses: his ex-girlfriend, whom he met when she was a stripper; his ex-wife, the mother of three of his daughters; and Beau’s widow, with whom he started a romantic relationship after his brother’s death.”

Joe Biden, in his lengthiest public remarks since he revealed his cancer diagnosis in May, said some of his presidency’s key accomplishments were “changing so rapidly” under the Trump administration and that European leaders had sought his advice since he left the White House, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Biden: “Many of the things I worked so damn hard, that I thought I changed in the country, are changing so rapidly.”

“Anthony Bernal, the top aide to Jill Biden, abruptly withdrew from his scheduled interview with the House Oversight Committee after President Trump’s White House waived his ability to invoke executive privilege to protect private conversations,” Axios reports.

“Bernal was quietly one of the most powerful people in the Biden White House with regular access to former President Biden as he aged.”

“The Trump White House has decided that nine former senior Biden aides won’t be protected by executive privilege during their interviews for a congressional probe into Joe Biden’s mental fitness for office,” Axios reports.

“The White House’s move means the former Biden aides will have to answer questions about their private conversations with Biden, unless they or Biden try to challenge the decision in court.”

“Republicans have now launched four separate investigations into former President Biden and whether his declining health affected his abilities in the White House,” Axios reports.

“Democrats don’t want to talk about Biden after last year’s elections. Republicans are trying to force them to — even as the GOP has shown little willingness to conduct oversight of the Trump administration’s norm-busting first months.”

“The GOP probes reflect how questioning Biden’s legitimacy has become a focus of Trump’s presidency — and how in the face of any bad news, Trump frequently blames Biden, 82, as an excuse or a deflection.”

“Former President Joe Biden celebrated Juneteenth on Thursday at a historic Black church in Texas, calling for Americans to come together to push the country forward,” CNN reports.

Said Biden: “I don’t come here today to only commemorate the past. I come here because we know the good Lord isn’t done with us yet. We have work to do. We need to keep pushing America forward.”

“I think that people took over the autopen.”

— President Trump, in an interview with the New York Post, on former President Biden’s tenure.

“Joe Biden’s doctor should have given him a cognitive test during his final year as president because of his age, Barack Obama’s former physician said in an interview, contending that the results would have helped the White House and the public understand whether Biden was up to serving another four years,” the Washington Post reports.

“Former President Biden pushed back on Wednesday night on President Trump’s announcement of an investigation into his use of an autopen to sign orders that raised questions about his mental fitness,” Axios reports.

Said Biden: “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”