President Trump’s longtime physician claims his office was raided, and medical records pertaining to Trump were taken by the president’s longtime bodyguard and a lawyer at the Trump Organization.
In an interview with NBC News, Dr. Harold Bornstein said the “raid” occurred after he told the New York Times that Trump takes a prostate-related medicine to maintain hair growth.
Bornstein said the Feb. 3, 2017, incident left him feeling “raped, frightened and sad.” The doctor said Trump’s former bodyguard, Keith Schiller, and another “large man” came to his Park Avenue office. Once there, they gathered the president’s medical records.
“They must have been here for 25 to 30 minutes. It created a lot of chaos,” Bornstein told NBC News.
During the time of the incident, Schiller was working in the White House as director of Oval Office Operations. He left his post in September. Schiller was reportedly accompanied by Trump Organization Chief Legal Officer Alan Garten, according to NBC News, and a third unidentified man.
Bornstein, who served as Trump’s physician for more than 35 years, said Schiller and his team asked the doctor to remove from his wall a framed photo of Bornstein and Trump. Bornstein also claimed he was never given a form signed by the president that authorized the release of his records.
A source told NBC News that Bornstein did, however, have a letter from White House doctor Ronny Jackson. It’s unknown whether the form, a HIPAA release, was attached.
Schiller’s team reportedly took the original, and sole, copy of Trump’s charts, which included lab reports listed under the president’s name as well as pseudonyms.
The “raid” of Bornstein’s office occurred two days after the story in the New York Times was published. Bornstein told the newspaper Trump takes the hair growth drug Propecia, and was prescribed medicine for rosacea and cholesterol.
The president severed ties with Bornstein following the article’s publication, Bornstein said.
“I couldn’t believe anybody was making a big deal out of a drug to grow his hair that seemed to be so important,” Bornstein told NBC News. “And it certainly was not a breach of medical trust to tell somebody they take Propecia to grow their hair. What’s the matter with that?”
Trump’s longtime doctor told NBC News he decided to speak publicly about last year’s incident after allegations about Jackson surfaced. Jackson, who Trump nominated to serve as secretary of Veterans Affairs, was accused of drinking on the job and overprescribing prescription drugs, which earned him the nickname “the candy man.”
Jackson withdrew his name from consideration to lead the VA last week and has denied the claims.
