‘It’s Now Clear There Was A Conspiracy’: Biden’s Doctor Pleads The Fifth As GOP Probes ‘Cover Up’

Former President Joe Biden’s physician, Kevin O’Connor, pleaded the Fifth during a closed-door deposition before Congress on Wednesday.

The interview, part of an investigation into Biden’s mental state and whether he authorized the use of autopen signatures for major executive actions, lasted roughly an hour on Capitol Hill.

In a statement, O’Connor’s attorneys told House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and the other members of the Oversight Committee that their client would not violate his oath of confidentiality to his patients, including Biden. They also insisted that a “pending” Department of Justice criminal investigation left O’Connor “no choice” but to assert his Fifth Amendment rights.

Comer, who had subpoenaed O’Connor to testify, confirmed that the witness declined to cooperate.

“It’s now 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,” Comer said in a post on X.

“The American people demand transparency but Dr. O’Connor would rather conceal the truth,” Comer added. “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. 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.”

O’Connor’s deposition took place after Trump waived his executive privilege, which also happened for former White House Staff Secretary and Director of the Domestic Policy Council Neera Tanden, who testified for several hours last month and denied there was an effort to cover up Biden’s condition. Other former Biden aides are expected to testify before the House Oversight Committee in the coming weeks.

Democrats have dismissed the House Oversight Committee’s probe as baseless.

“The only thing extraordinary that came out of that deposition was it was an extraordinary waste of time,” Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) told reporters on the day Tanden gave testimony.

Biden, now 82, abandoned his 2024 re-election bid following a faltering presidential debate against Trump amid pressure from allies. A book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson on Biden’s “decline” and the “cover-up,” alongside the former president’s recent “aggressive” prostate cancer diagnosis and the release of audio from special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with him, has intensified scrutiny.

Trump ordered a separate investigation into whether aides improperly used an autopen for executive actions in an effort to conceal Biden’s health issues, suggesting there could be “implications” for the legality and validity of the presidential acts in question. Senate Republicans are also looking into Biden’s mental fitness.

Biden has pushed back on the notion that he did not dictate his executive actions.

“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false,” Biden said in a statement. “This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans.”