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The former White House doctor criticises Kevin O’Connor after refusing to answer questions from House Oversight Committee investigators earlier this week.
Dr. O’Connor, who served as a White House doctor to former President Joe Biden, sat down on Wednesday for a transcribed interview with committee staff and panel chair James Kommer (R-Ky.). The closing meeting lasted about 30 minutes, with O’Connor calling the fifth amendment of all questions, except for his name.
His legal team said there is concern that a wide range of Comer’s probes could force O’Connor into a position that endangers the privileges of physicians and patients’ confidentiality.
“Well, you can’t do both,” former White House doctor R-Texas’s Ronny Jackson told Fox News Digital in a subsequent interview.
Comer rejects Biden Doctor’s bid to pause with the cover-up probe: “Dropping all excuses”
Rep. Ronnie Jackson, a former White House doctor, claims there is a “cover-up” of former President Biden’s health. (Al Drago/Bloomberg, Lev Radin/Anadolu Agency)
“So the fifth amendment is designed to prevent him from committing himself with any type of criminal or unethical behavior. He was already addressing the issue of privacy or confidentiality of the committee’s patients and doctors.”
He noted that O’Connor’s lawyer had already raised issues regarding patient and physician confidentiality in a letter to the committee trying to delay the interview, but Kommer has moved forward.
“They had already let him know that it was a legal process, since he had already been summoned in this particular case. He had been summoned to testify before Congress in this closed session. “And President Trump renounced his privileges. So it left him nothing. Nothing stands except to sue the fifth.”
Before being elected to Congress, Jackson served as White House doctors to both former President Barack Obama and now President Donald Trump.
Comer told reporters Wednesday that Jackson played a key role in creating the O’Connor question.
As the house probe gets hot, he says “I never worried” about Biden’s mental state before.
James Kommer, chairman of the House of Representatives Oversight and Accountability Committee, is leading the investigation into the issue. (Anna Money Maker/Getty Images)
“There are many questions I prepared about this. I had a close consultation with my colleague Ronnie Jackson, who was the first Trump administration’s White House doctor, and I consulted with many people in the medical world.
He is investigating whether Biden’s former top White House aide hides signs of his mental and physical decline during his inauguration and whether executive action was commissioned via the autopen without the full knowledge of the president. Biden’s allies pushed back these claims.
“The cover-up could not have happened without the assistance and help of his personal doctor, Kevin O’Connor,” Jackson said. “I think that’s why he begged for the fifth because he realized he was trying to get himself involved as a key player in this cover-up.”
O’Connor’s lawyers deny the meaning of guilt.
Jackson said some of the questions he recommended to the committee surrounded potential neurological concerns and cognitive testing during Biden’s tenure.
But many of them remained unquestioned after a brief meeting with O’Connor and House investigators.
The physician’s lawyer said O’Connor’s refusal to answer questions about the Fifth Amendment was not an approval of guilt, but a response to what was deemed an unprecedented scope of investigation that could violate the boundaries of patient-physician privilege.
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“This committee has shown to Dr. O’Connor and his attorneys that they are not going to respect the privileges of physician patients, one of our laws, the privileges of physician patients. Instead, the committee requires Dr. O’Connor to disclose confidential information about his medical review, treatment and care without restrictions.
“Revealing confidential patient information violates the most basic ethical obligations of a physician, and could lead to the revocation of Dr. O’Connor’s medical license and could be exposed to Dr. O’Connor’s potential civil liability. Dr. O’Connor does not violate the oath of his patients, including President Biden.”
Fox News Digital has contacted O’Connor’s attorney for further comment.
Elizabeth Elkind is the main reporter of Fox News Digital’s reporting in the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen on Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow me on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to Elizabeth.elkind@fox.com
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