Full name: Annmarie “Annie” Tomasini
Role: Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations (2021–2025)
Status: Left government service January 2025. Invoked the Fifth Amendment before the House Oversight Committee. Referred to the DOJ by Chairman Comer (October 2025).
Prior role: Longtime Biden aide; managed Biden’s personal schedule and access since his Senate years

Priority: P2

Tracked Activities: Controlled physical access to President Biden as Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations; described by multiple insiders as part of “loyalty police” who restricted contact with the president; invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked if anyone at the White House asked her to lie about Biden’s health; referred to DOJ by House Oversight Committee.

Background

Annie Tomasini is a longtime Biden loyalist who has worked for Joe Biden since his time in the U.S. Senate. She served as his personal aide (or “body person”) and rose through the ranks to become one of the most operationally powerful officials in the Biden White House.

As Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, she controlled:

• The president’s daily schedule
• Physical access to the Oval Office
• Who attended meetings with the president
• Travel logistics and public appearances

Multiple Biden administration insiders — speaking to Tapper and Thompson for “Original Sin” and to the Wall Street Journal — described Tomasini and Anthony Bernal (Jill Biden’s chief of staff) as the “loyalty police” who would ask White House staff: “Are you a Biden person?” Staff who expressed concerns about Biden’s fitness or suggested changes to the public schedule were reportedly marginalized.

Documented Actions

1. Access Control as Biden’s Decline Progressed

Multiple cabinet members told Tapper and Thompson that access to Biden “dropped off considerably in 2024.” One cabinet secretary described “a deliberate strategy by the White House to have him meet with as few people as necessary.” Another said: “For months we didn’t have access to him.”

As Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Tomasini was the official responsible for implementing these access restrictions. Whether she did so on her own initiative, at the direction of the “Politburo” (Donilon, Ricchetti, Reed, Klain), or at Biden’s own request is not established.

Biden held only nine full Cabinet meetings during his entire term — compared to 19 for Obama in his first term and 25 for Trump in his first term. Cabinet members with limited access included Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

What this establishes (political conduct): A senior government official implemented access restrictions that had the effect of concealing the president’s condition from cabinet members, congressional leaders, and other government officials. This is political conduct — it may have been inappropriate, but it is not criminal unless it was done with knowledge that the president was incapacitated and with intent to prevent invocation of the 25th Amendment.

Source: “Original Sin” (Tapper/Thompson, 2025); Wall Street Journal, December 2024 (~50 insider interviews); House Oversight Committee report, October 2025.

2. Fifth Amendment Invocation

Tomasini appeared before the House Oversight Committee and invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. She specifically refused to answer when asked:

“Did anyone in the Biden family or at the White House ever ask you to lie about President Biden’s health?”

The committee reported that she “invoked the Fifth Amendment” in response to this question.

Critical context: As with Dr. O’Connor, Tomasini’s invocation occurred in the context of an active Trump DOJ criminal investigation into Biden-era executive actions. Her attorneys likely advised her — correctly, from a legal-defense standpoint — that any testimony before the committee could be used by the Bondi DOJ to build a criminal case. This is the textbook situation where the Fifth Amendment exists to protect individuals, regardless of whether they actually committed a crime.

Source: House Oversight Committee, “The Biden Autopen Presidency,” October 2025; committee transcript (publicly released).

3. DOJ Referral

Chairman Comer referred Tomasini to AG Pam Bondi’s DOJ for “further scrutiny,” citing her Fifth Amendment invocation and her role as a gatekeeper to the president. The committee stated it was “unable to determine the totality of actions taken by Bernal and Tomasini to conceal President Biden’s decline.”

What this referral does and does not mean: See the context note in the Basis for Inclusion above. A referral from a Republican committee chair to the Trump DOJ is not a finding of criminal conduct. Given the documented pattern of the Trump DOJ using congressional referrals as pretexts for retributive prosecution, this referral should be understood as carrying significant risk of political weaponization.

Salience for Patriot University

Tomasini’s case raises a structural governance question: When does legitimate White House operations management — controlling the president’s schedule, limiting access — become unconstitutional concealment of presidential incapacity? The 25th Amendment contemplates that the Cabinet, not White House staff, determines presidential fitness. If staff prevented the Cabinet from having the access necessary to make that determination, it represents a structural failure regardless of criminal intent.

This profile documents:

1. The factual record of access restrictions (documented by multiple credible sources)
2. The Fifth Amendment invocation (a fact, without imputing guilt)
3. The political context of the investigation (partisan motivation; risk of DOJ weaponization)

Factual correction requests: If you believe information in this profile is incorrect, please contact factcheck@patriot.university with your name (optional), the specific claim, and any supporting documentation. We review all submissions and correct verified errors promptly.

Sources

1. House Oversight Committee, “The Biden Autopen Presidency,” October 24, 2025. https://oversight.house.gov/release/oversight-committee-releases-report-on-the-biden-autopen-presidency/

1. “Original Sin” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson (Random House, May 2025).

1. Wall Street Journal, “White House aides noticed Biden’s decline during first months of term,” December 2024.

1. PBS News, “Tapper and Thompson discuss book claiming Biden’s inner circle hid signs of decline,” May 2025. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/tapper-and-thompson-discuss-book-claiming-bidens-inner-circle-hid-signs-of-decline

1. The Conversation, “‘He’d only have to show proof of life once in a while’: Joe Biden’s advisors hid his decline — and the media didn’t dig hard enough,” 2025. https://theconversation.com/hed-only-have-to-show-proof-of-life-once-in-a-while-joe-bidens-advisors-hid-his-decline-and-the-media-didnt-dig-hard-enough-257010