WASHINGTON — House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-K.Y., has sent a subpoena to Joe Biden’s White House physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, as he and Republicans in Washington ramp up scrutiny of the former president’s health and fitness while in office.
The subpoena, dated Thursday, requests O’Connor testify at a deposition June 27. The letter notes the move comes after O’Connor, who declared Biden “fit for duty” following his annual assessment last year, declined the committee’s request last month to sit for a transcribed interview.
According to the subpoena, O’Connor’s counsel cited a local Washington statute, the code of ethics of the American Medical Association and physician-patient privilege — all pertaining to a doctor’s ability to disclose information about a patient — in declining the interview. Comer argued all three did not apply in this case and “lack merit.”
“You refused the Committee’s request,” the letter to O’Connor reads. “However, to advance the Committee’s oversight and legislative responsibilities and interests, your testimony is critical.”
Earlier this week, Comer moved to expand his probe into Biden’s mental state while in office, sending letters to top aides to the former president requesting they sit for interviews. Among those aides were Biden’s onetime chief of staff, Ron Klain, and former counselor Steve Ricchetti.
The Kentucky Republican also noted he sent new requests to another group of former top Biden staffers who he said the White House shielded from testifying to the committee when they were actively serving in the Biden administration. He added he would subpoena them as he did with O’Connor should they refuse to appear voluntarily.
The escalation of the probe comes amid a wider push in recent weeks by Republicans in power in the nation’s capital to increase scrutiny on Biden, with President Donald Trump ordering his own investigation into his predecessor Wednesday. The Senate Judiciary Committee, meanwhile, is set to hold what it says is the first full congressional hearing on the former president’s cognitive state while in office later this month.
Biden’s mental fitness during his time in the White House has received renewed attention in the wake of his prostate cancer diagnosis last month and the release of a book about what the authors say was the former president’s decline while in office and an effort behind the scenes to shield others from knowing about it.
In his press release announcing his request for interviews from former Biden aides this week, Comer referenced the book and its claim that “Five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board.”
The former president’s cancer diagnosis has also sparked questions, including from Trump, about how it was not discovered earlier.
For his part, Biden has sternly rejected the premise he had any cognitive decline in office, referring to reporting in recent books about it as “wrong” during an appearance on ABC’s “The View” last month.