WASHINGTON \u2014 Joe Biden\u2019s former doctor refused to answer a single question Wednesday about the\u00a0ex-president\u2019s\u00a0health and cognitive decline \u2014 stunningly invoking his right against self-incrimination before slinking out of a congressional deposition.<\/p>\n
Dr. Kevin O\u2019Connor is facing claims that he shielded the public from Biden\u2019s decline while the 46th president was in office \u2014 and even covered up his powerful patient\u2019s advanced-stage prostate cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. O\u2019Connor pleaded the Fifth Amendment,\u201d House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) revealed after the doctor\u2019s swift departure.<\/p>\n
Ex-White House Dr. Kevin O\u2019Connor pleaded the Fifth Amendment and ducked out of his high-profile congressional deposition over the purported shielding of President Joe Biden\u2019s cognitive decline. REUTERS<\/p>\n
According to Comer, O\u2019Connor, Biden\u2019s longtime personal physician, was asked\u00a0two key questions:<\/p>\n
In both instances, O\u2019Connor took the Fifth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is unprecedented, and I think that this adds more fuel to the fire that there was a cover-up,\u201d Comer declared.<\/p>\n
In a subsequent statement, the Kentucky Republican added it was \u201cclear there was a conspiracy to cover up\u201d the 46th president\u2019s declining mental acuity.<\/p>\n
\u201cCongress must assess legislative solutions to prevent such a cover-up from happening again,\u201d he added. \u201cWe will continue to interview more Biden White House aides to get the answers Americans deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an unusual move, the committee posted footage<\/a> of O\u2019Connor\u2019s aborted closed-door interview on X, tweeting: \u201cWhat are they hiding?\u201d<\/p>\n Former White House physician Kevin O\u2019Connor departs the Rayburn House Office Building following testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee investigating President Joe Biden\u2019s mental fitness during his presidency on July 9. REUTERS<\/p>\n The only question O\u2019Connor did answer\u00a0before the deposition concluded was confirming his name, according to an Oversight spokesperson, who pointed out that doctor-patient privilege would have allowed the witness to answer at least some questions.<\/p>\n Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, who served as physician to the president during Barack Obama\u2019s first term, agreed with that interpretation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn my opinion, [the first question] doesn\u2019t involve HIPAA,\u201d Kuhlman told The Post.<\/p>\n As for the second question, Kuhlman advised, \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s covered by HIPAA,\u201d because it \u201cdoesn\u2019t sound like that\u2019s specific health information that they\u2019re seeking.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n When asked whether he would answer questions\u00a0under oath that don\u2019t directly relate to a patient\u2019s health, Kuhlman said: \u201cIn my role as a physician caring for a patient, I probably would.\u201d<\/p>\n Kuhlman, who published the book \u201cTransforming Presidential Healthcare,\u201d in November 2024, has\u00a0repeatedly called<\/a>\u00a0for Biden and other elderly politicians to be subjected to annual mental fitness tests.<\/p>\n Biden walks with Dr. Kevin O\u2019Connor outside the White House on December 6, 2021. White House<\/p>\n \u201cDr. O\u2019Connor pleading the Fifth all but confirms he was a key player in the biggest coverup in presidential history and knew Joe Biden wasn\u2019t fit to serve, and now he\u2019s grasping for anything to protect himself,\u201d added Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), a doctor who also served in the Obama White House\u2019s Medical Unit.<\/p>\n \u201cExperts agree that the Oversight Committee\u2019s questions wouldn\u2019t have violated doctor-patient confidentiality, which means O\u2019Connor isn\u2019t shielding Biden\u2019s privacy\u2014he\u2019s most likely shielding his own criminal behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Biden White House officials weren\u2019t surprised at O\u2019Connor\u2019s move, with one telling The Post the doctor is \u201cincredibly loyal and I never expected him to say anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), who was present for the deposition, claimed \u201cas someone who has served as a criminal defense attorney\u201d that there was nothing scandalous about O\u2019Connor\u2019s Irish exit.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that he did what any good lawyer would advise him to do, and it seems like he had two good lawyers in the room today,\u201d Crockett said,\u00a0arguing that O\u2019Connor could have lost his medical license for disclosing patient records \u2014 even those of a former president.<\/p>\n The outspoken Texas Democrat also defended Biden\u2019s record, saying \u201che completely understood what was going on\u201d and \u201cmay get fumbled up by words, but that\u2019s not anything new and it\u2019s not anything that came with age.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDr. O\u2019Connor pleaded the Fifth Amendment,\u201d Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) later revealed. AP<\/p>\n \u201cThere is nothing about Joe Biden and his stutter or him being older that caused any issues as it relates to potentially harming the American people,\u201d Crockett\u00a0declared.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is that the country wasn\u2019t off the rails when Joe Biden was sitting in the White House,\u201d she added of the chief executive who\u00a083% of Americans had said was leading the country off the rails\u00a0halfway through his term<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and who left office with\u00a0a record-low approval rating<\/a>.<\/p>\n The next scheduled\u00a0Oversight Committee\u00a0interview will take place Friday with Ashley Williams, the former special assistant to the president and deputy director of Oval Office operations.<\/p>\n Annie Tomasini, former assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff, will sit for an interview on July 18.<\/p>\n Biden left the White House in January 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n Comer told reporters that O\u2019Connor invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination lent more credibility to bombshell claims made in the Biden White House tell-all \u201cOriginal Sin\u201d published May 20 by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson.<\/p>\n The co-authors alleged that a \u201cPolitburo<\/a>\u201d of close senior advisers \u2014 including Tomasini \u2014 served as the \u201cultimate decision-makers\u201d in the last White House.<\/p>\n Other purported \u201cPolitburo\u201d members who will sit for interviews with the Oversight panel include ex-White House chief of staff Ron Klain (July 24), former counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti (July 30), former senior adviser Mike Donilon (July 31) and former deputy chief of staff for policy Bruce Reed (Aug. 5).<\/p>\n O\u2019Connor \u2014 seen here with Biden while serving as vice president \u2014 pleaded the Fifth to the question, \u201cWere you ever told to lie about the president\u2019s health?\u201d White House Photo Office<\/p>\n Anita Dunn, who left the Biden White House in August 2024 after serving as a senior adviser to the president for communications, will sit for a transcribed interview Aug. 7.<\/p>\n The Trump White House had declined Tuesday to invoke executive privilege over any of\u00a0O\u2019Connor\u2019s\u00a0testimony, as it had for both ex-Biden aide Neera Tanden and Anthony Bernal,\u00a0first lady Jill Biden\u2019s top aide<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tanden testified for five hours\u00a0without being shielded by the executive authority<\/a>\u00a0and told reporters afterward that there was \u201cabsolutely not\u201d a cover-up of Biden\u2019s diminishing mental fitness.<\/p>\n Bernal will be deposed July 16 after refusing to appear voluntarily.<\/p>\n O\u2019Connor leaving the Rayburn House Office Building following his testimony on July 9. REUTERS<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s more and more evidence that comes out every day that would suggest that the president was in a pretty severe mental decline, so we\u2019re going to ask about that,\u201d Comer had said before the deposition.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t have the physician\u2019s office not being truthful about the health condition of the president,\u201d he added, noting that\u00a0the interview\u00a0was part of a larger investigation into who in the Biden White House was authorized to use an autopen that signed executive actions and pardons.<\/p>\n O\u2019Connor attorney David\u00a0Schertler also\u00a0represented former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci<\/a>\u00a0during his testimony before the Oversight\u2019s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic last year.<\/p>\n