Joe Biden’s doctor pleaded the Fifth Amendment while meeting with House Republicans investigating the former president’s mental fitness while in office.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor was called to testify on Wednesday behind closed doors before the House Oversight Committee. He served as physician to the president throughout Biden’s presidency and as his doctor for twelve years before that.
His decision to invoke the Fifth and not answer questions about the president’s health has further fueled GOP accusations the president was not altogether with it at the end of his presidency and his staff engaged in a cover-up, with someone else pulling the strings behind the scenes.
O’Connor is one of multiple Biden aides being called in for questioning as House Republicans investigate accusations from conservatives about the previous administration and allegations that the former president was not in charge while in office.
But the former president’s doctor refused to cooperate with that investigation, prompting House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer to issue a subpoena last month.
In a statement from his lawyer to the committee on Wednesday, O’Connor pleaded the Fifth Amendment, which protects a person from self-incrimination.
“The totality of the circumstances surrounding this Committee’s investigation leave Dr. O’Connor no choice but to decline to answer questions on two overlapping grounds,” said his lawyer, David Schertler, in a statement.
The statement cited doctor-patient privilege and O’Connor’s ethical duty of confidentiality, but it also noted the “pending Department of Justice criminal investigation leaves Dr. O’Connor no choice but to invoke his constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to any questions posed by the Committee.”
O’Connor’s lawyer emphasized that invoking the Fifth Amendment does not imply his client committed any crime and quoted the Supreme Court assertion that its function is to “protect innocent men who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances.”
However, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer seized on O’Connor’s refusal to cooperate as an omission of guilt.
“It’s now clear there was a conspiracy to cover up President Biden’s cognitive decline after Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s physician and family business associate, refused to answer any questions and chose to hide behind the fifth amendment,” Comer wrote on X.
He accused O’Connor of concealing the truth and said he took the fifth “when asked if he was told to lie about President Biden’s health and whether he was fit to be President of the United States.”
Comer vowed to interview more Biden White House officials, but House Democrats blasted their GOP colleague for obsessing about the former president.
“The only person’s health that Republicans care about is Joe Biden’s,” said Ranking Member Robert Garcia in a statement.
Republicans have called on a series of Biden officials for questioning. Among them are former Special Assistant to the President Ian Sams, former Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates, and former Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who were all requested for interviews next month. An interview with former White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients was requested for early September.
Former Biden adviser Neera Tanden appeared behind closed doors as part of the investigation last month. She told reporters that she answered every question.
