President Biden’s physician during his time in office as vice president and again as president, Kevin O’Connor, is refusing to partake in a closed-door interview with GOP members of a congressional committee investigating the former president’s mental fitness while in office.

The interview, scheduled more than a month after President Trump waived executive privilege related to Dr. O’Connor’s records in an attempt to compel his cooperation, is part of the ongoing House probe.

Dr. O’Connor cited both doctor-patient privilege and his Fifth Amendment rights, according to a statement issued by his attorneys, as factoring into his decision to refuse to testify. The physician’s legal team argued that his professional obligations legally restrict him from divulging confidential information and participating in the hearing. 

“On the advice of his legal counsel, Dr. O’Connor refused to answer questions that invaded the well-established legal privilege that protects confidential matters between physicians and their patients,” a statement from his attorneys reads. “His assertion of his right under the Fifth Amendment to decline to answer questions, also on the advice of his lawyers, was made necessary by the unique circumstances of this deposition.”

Dr. O’Connor’s statement also cited Mr. Trump as precedent, referencing his invocation of his own Fifth Amendment rights during his deposition in the investigation into his real estate transactions led by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James. The doctor’s counsel pointed to Mr. Trump’s suggestion that “only an absolute fool” would refuse to take the Fifth. 

Despite refusing to answer questions, Dr. O’Connor appeared at the Rayburn House Office Building on Wednesday after receiving a subpoena last month compelling his testimony. However, in the lead-up to this appearance, his team had reportedly requested to delay the interview in the hopes of continuing negotiations with the committee staff. 

Congressman James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee and leader of the investigation, has pushed back against Dr. O’Connor’s claims regarding his inability to testify. Mr. Comer has pressed Dr. O’Connor to cooperate fully in what the GOP describes as an essential probe into Mr. Biden’s capacity to carry out his duties. 

“The president is the most powerful person in the world. The American people have a right to know the health condition of the president, both physical and mental,” Mr. Comer said before the interview, according to the Hill.

“I don’t believe that he can hide behind doctor-patient confidentiality because this is the president of the United States, and people expect the White House physician to be truthful and transparent about the president of the United States’s health,” Mr. Comer added.

Despite Mr. Biden’s evident decline, both in mental acuity and physically, Dr. O’Connor wrote after a May 2024 examination that he was fine. The doctor said he had conducted “an extremely detailed neurologic exam” that “was again reassuring,” finding no symptoms consistent with a stroke, multiple sclerosis, or Parkinson’s disease.

The exam findings added that no tremors or “motor weakness” were detected, and Dr. O’Connor said Mr. Biden “demonstrates excellent fine-motor dexterity.”