The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability has been trying to have a conversation for almost a year with Dr. Kevin O’Connor, former President Joe Biden’s physician. So far, he has refused to cooperate. In a letter sent on Thursday, the committee demanded, with the power of a subpoena, that he sit for a deposition on June 27.

Despite numerous concerning public moments when Biden seemed too old and infirm to handle the grueling work of the presidency, O’Connor gave Biden a clean bill of health. In February 2024, O’Connor assessed Biden as “a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency,” noted the letter from committee Chair James Comer.

This assessment is nearly impossible to believe because that same month, Special Counsel Robert Hur unsealed his report to the Department of Justice that found problems with Biden’s handling of classified documents. Hur doubted he could secure a conviction and declined to charge Biden because, according to Hur, “Biden would likely present himself to the jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Hur went on to say, “It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”

Incredibly, Biden remained president until the end of his term, making few appearances and reportedly signing almost everything with a staff-operated autopen, which is also currently under investigation.

Within months of Biden leaving the White House, his family announced he has advanced prostate cancer. How did O’Connor miss that?

The Oversight Committee is investigating more than the state of Biden’s health. It wants to know if O’Connor was personally motivated to produce favorable reports for his own gain.  

“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,” Comer’s 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.”

A Politico piece last year described O’Connor as a personal friend to the Bidens who offered “medical advice” and made business connections for Joe Biden’s brother Jim, who was seeking government contracts from Veterans Affairs.

“Last Congress, Chairman Comer also requested Dr. O’Connor appear for a transcribed interview to discuss his medical assessments and involvement in the Biden family’s influence peddling racket, but the Biden White House blocked his testimony,” Comer’s office said in a statement.

The committee intends to look at O’Connor’s relationship with the Bidens and consider if Congress should “revisit potential legislation to address the oversight of presidents’ fitness” and possibly make changes to the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, which addresses how to remove a president who becomes unable to serve.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.