Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who was former President Joe Biden’s physician, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a deposition on Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee.
O’Connor entered the Rayburn House Office Building hearing room at 9:36 a.m. and didn’t take any questions from reporters. He exited shortly after at 10:31 a.m., holding a Diet Coke.
His lawyers said, “No comments to the press.”
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Sources told the Washington Examiner that the deposition was brief because O’Connor invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions as part of the committee’s investigation into the alleged cover-up of Biden’s health decline.
“It’s clear there was a conspiracy to cover up President Biden’s cognitive decline after Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s physician and family business associate, refused to answer any questions and chose to hide behind the Fifth Amendment,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said. “The American people demand transparency, but Dr. O’Connor would rather conceal the truth.”
O’Connor’s lawyers, David Schertler and Mark MacDougall, released a statement following the conclusion of the hearing.
“We want to emphasize that asserting the Fifth Amendment privilege does not imply that Dr. O’Connor has committed any crime,” his lawyers said in the statement obtained by the Washington Examiner.
His lawyers said the committee “will demand” information without limitations, saying the doctor “will not violate his oath of confidentiality to any of his patients, including President Biden.”
O’Connor’s brief deposition follows Neera Tanden’s appearance for a daylong interview before the Oversight Committee’s majority and minority counsel last month. The doctor showed up despite a request to delay his hearing and the White House waiving him from executive privilege.
“Dr. O’Connor took the Fifth when asked if he was told to lie about President Biden’s health and whether he was fit to be president of the United States,” Comer said. “Congress must assess legislative solutions to prevent such a cover-up from happening again. We will continue to interview more Biden White House aides to get the answers Americans deserve.”
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) told reporters that O’Connor’s decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment should not be seen as a sign of guilt but rather reality, as the House, Senate, and the Department of Justice have all opened investigations into Biden’s health.
“He did what any good lawyer would advise him to do, and it seems like he had two good lawyers in the room today,” Crockett told reporters.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have slammed the Biden investigation as a distraction from more pressing issues, such as looming Medicaid and food assistance reductions included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“I am going to continue to redirect the American people to the things that matter and make sure that they know that the reason that we’re having to deal with this is because they are trying to cover up for their incompetency,” Crockett said.
President Donald Trump waived executive privilege the night before O’Connor’s closed-door hearing. Executive privilege allows a witness to withhold information from Congress to protect the integrity of the executive branch. As the investigation progresses, the rest of the witnesses will also be denied the same protections.
O’Connor’s lawyers sent a request Saturday to delay his deposition before the counsel, saying the doctor could face “serious consequences” for violating his obligations as a physician, including losing his medical license. Comer declined the request.
“We are unaware of any prior occasion on which a Congressional Committee has subpoenaed a physician to testify about the treatment of an individual patient,” the physician’s lawyers wrote. “And the notion that a Congressional Committee would do so without any regard whatsoever for the confidentiality of the physician-patient relationship is alarming.”
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The transcripts are slated to be made public, according to a spokesperson for the committee. Comer told the Washington Examiner last month that no interviews will be released before all of them have concluded. Transcribed interviews are typically conducted by committee staff over several hours, and both parties are granted extended time for questioning, compared to the five-minute increments afforded to members during publicly televised hearings.
Interviews are set to take place until Aug. 7, with former Jill Biden aide Anthony Bernal scheduled to appear on July 16 for a deposition after being subpoenaed for refusing to appear before the committee to testify as part of its investigation, following the White House telling the witnesses they were not protected by executive privilege.
