Former President Joe Biden’s doctor is trying to avoid appearing before a House panel on Wednesday despite being served with a subpoena ordering him to appear, according to a representative of the panel.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the Biden White House’s efforts to minimize awareness of Biden’s declining mental and physical condition.
The panel is also investigating the extent to which unauthorized use of an autopen to sign documents took place.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor was initially asked to appear for a voluntary interview with the panel. The panel later issued a subpoena to compel O’Connor to appear.
Now, O’Connor said through his lawyer that “substantial privilege and confidentiality interests” are in the way of any explanation about how his public pronouncements of Biden’s fitness for office square with other accounts that describe the White House business as going around Biden instead of through him, according to NBC.
“It would be an unnecessary spectacle to require Dr. O’Connor to testify before your Committee next week without any accommodations for the well-established doctrine of doctor-patient confidentiality and to subject himself to potential criminal prosecution for contempt of Congress for doing the right thing — honoring his legal and ethical obligations to a patient,” attorney David Schertler wrote in the letter, which was dated Saturday.
The committee is not buying the excuse, according to a representative who called it “another delay tactic to stonewall the Oversight Committee’s investigation.”
“To the extent that Dr. O’Connor wishes to assert privilege in response to specific questions, the Oversight Committee will follow that process at the deposition,” the representative said.
“Dr. O’Connor is not permitted to disregard a congressional deposition subpoena because he believes he may be asked questions that, in his view, will implicate privileged information.”
The representative said the committee will meet Wednesday with or without O’Connor, according to Fox News.
The letter accompanying the subpoena to O’Connor said the panel had questions “regarding ‘the circumstances surrounding your assessment in February 2024 that former President Biden was ‘a healthy, active, robust 81- year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency.’”
“Among other subjects, the Committee expressed its interest in whether your financial relationship with the Biden family affected your assessment of former President Biden’s physical and mental fitness to fulfill his duties as President,” the letter said.
“Given your connections with the Biden family, the Committee sought to understand if you contributed to an effort to hide former President Biden’s fitness to serve from the American people.”
The panel has been taking testimony and interviews from former White House aides. Anthony Bernal, a former aide for former first lady Jill Biden, refused to attend and has been subpoenaed.
Last month, former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, as well as Ian Sams, Andrew Bates, and Jeff Zients, were called upon to be interviewed, according to a news release on the committee’s website.
“President Biden’s inner circle repeatedly told the American people that he was ‘sharp as ever,’ dismissing any commentary about his obvious mental decline as ‘gratuitous.’ They fed these false talking points to progressive allies and the media, who helped perpetuate that President Biden was fit to serve,” Committee Chairman. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky said.
“As part of our aggressive investigation into the cover-up of his cognitive decline and potentially unauthorized executive actions, we must hear from the those who aided and abetted this farce,” he said.
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