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Trump Yanks Executive Privilege Away from Biden’s Doctor

The Trump administration is turning up the heat on former President Joe Biden’s doctor, who has so far shied away from responding to questions about Biden’s fitness for the presidency.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the Biden White House’s efforts to minimize awareness of Biden’s declining mental and physical condition.

As part of that investigation, it initially called upon Dr. Kevin O’Connor to answer questions, then fired off a subpoena compelling O’Connor to testify after weeks of back-and-forth over terms of O’Connor’s appearance.

O’Connor had been scheduled to appear Wednesday, but over the weekend his lawyer sent the House panel a letter saying “substantial privilege and confidentiality interests” prevented him from appearing, according to NBC.

The Trump White House then struck back on Tuesday with a letter revoking O’Connor’s ability to assert executive privilege in dodging the panel’s questions, according to Fox News.

“In light of the unique and extraordinary nature of the matters under investigation, President Trump has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the national interest, and therefore is not justified, with respect to particular subjects within the purview of the House Oversight Committee,” the letter said.

“These subjects include your assessment of former President Biden’s fitness for the office of the president and your financial relationship with the Biden family.”

The letter noted that issues concerning the extent of the cover-up of Biden’s declining fitness warranted an exception to the standard policy.

“The extraordinary events in this matter constitute exceptional circumstances warranting an accommodation to Congress. Evidence that aides to former President Biden concealed information regarding his fitness to exercise the powers of the President — and may have unconstitutionally exercised those powers themselves to aid in their concealment — implicates both Congress’ constitutional and legislative powers.”

Will former White House physician Kevin O’Connor provide key information about the Biden cover-up?

“After balancing the Legislative and Executive Branch interests, as required under the accommodation process, it is the President’s view that this presents and exceptional situation in which the congressional need for information outweighs the Executive Branch’s interest in maintaining confidentiality, especially given the Executive Branch’s own interest in determining the validity of prior executive actions,” the letter continued.

O’Connor’s attorney confirmed the letter from the White House Counsel’s Office was received.

A representative of the House panel has called O’Connor’s effort to avoid appearing Wednesday “another delay tactic to stonewall the Oversight Committee’s investigation,” according to Fox News.

The representative said the committee will meet Wednesday with or without O’Connor.

A report from Newsweek indicated O’Connor will testify on Wednesday. That report could not be confirmed, although a social media post from Committee Chair Rep. James Comer of Kentucky indicated O’Connor would appear.

Related:

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The letter accompanying the subpoena to O’Connor said the panel had questions “regarding ‘the circumstances surrounding your assessment in February 2024 that former President Biden was ‘a healthy, active, robust 81- year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency.’”

“Among other subjects, 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. 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,” the letter said.

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