Biden's White House physician to appear before House panel
Former President Biden's White House doctor, Kevin O'Connor, is set to appear for a deposition before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee next month, a committee spokesperson confirmed to The Hill.
O'Connor is scheduled to be deposed on July 9 as committee Chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) expands his panel's probes into Biden's mental acuity while in office, demanding interviews with former top aides. Comer issued a subpoena for testimony from O'Connor earlier this month.
The Oversight committee is looking into Biden's cognitive functions and autopen usage during his White House tenure. Biden and his wife, Jill, have denied allegations that the former president experienced decline while in office.
New books about the end of former President Biden's term and his recent diagnosis with an aggressive form of prostate cancer have put a spotlight on O'Connor, who has served as Biden's physician since the Obama administration, when Biden was vice president. He was the Biden family physician after the Democrats left office, and was selected to serve again when Biden became president in 2021.
O'Connor's last physical exam of Biden, dated February 2024, described the then-president as 'fit for duty,' adding that he 'fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations.'
Comer had previously asked O'Connor to appear before the Oversight panel for a transcribed interview, saying in a late May letter that 'the Committee seeks information to ensure accurate information was provided to the American people and your health reports were not subject to any improper influence.'
O'Connor's team refused that request, his lawyers citing in part a D.C. code concerning physicians' disclosure of patient information to a court without consent, according to the June letter from Comer issuing the subpoena.
NBC News first reported on Connor's scheduled July appearance.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hamilton Spectator
an hour ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Intelligence leaders are set to brief Congress on Trump's Iran strikes
WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of Congress will hear directly from President Donald Trump's intelligence leaders Tuesday, receiving classified briefings just three days after Trump directed strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and a day after Iran struck a U.S. base in Qatar. The briefings also come the day after Trump proclaimed on social media that Israel and Iran had agreed that there will be an 'Official END' of their conflict. Democrats in Congress, along with some Republicans, have questions about Trump's unilateral decision to launch military action, arguing he should have come to Congress for approval — or at least provided more justification for the attacks. 'We expect them to explain to the American people what were the results in terms of actually thwarting Iran's capacity to become a nuclear power and what are the Trump administration's plans to avoid another potentially disastrous war in the Middle East, where thousands of American lives are potentially at risk,' said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. The separate briefings for the House and Senate will be led by CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, along with Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and deputy secretaries of state Christopher Landau and Steve Feinberg. The meetings could turn contentious as many lawmakers feel they have been left in the dark on what led to the strikes and amid escalating tensions between the White House and Congress over the role of the United States internationally — disagreements that don't always fall along party lines. Democrats have been generally suspicious of Trump's strategy, and his motives abroad, but some believe the U.S. could have a role in supporting Israel against Iran. Others strongly believe the U.S. should stay out of it. Some of Trump's strongest Republican supporters agree with the Democrats, echoing his earlier arguments against 'forever wars.' But many others in the party enthusiastically backed the strikes, saying he should have the power to act on his own. 'President Trump deserves all the credit,' said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., after Trump said there would be a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. 'This is what peace through strength looks like.' Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, suggested in a post on X that Trump should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., posted: 'Historic! The President of Peace!' Democrats said they would be looking for more information about the ceasefire that Trump claimed on social media. Israel and Iran did not immediately acknowledge any ceasefire. After Iran's retaliation on the U.S. base in Qatar on Monday, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said he wanted an additional classified briefing 'laying out the full threat picture, the intelligence behind Iran's retaliation, and the details, scope, and timeline of any U.S. response.' Senate Democrats are also forcing a vote as soon as this week on a resolution by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., requiring congressional approval for specific military action in Iran. 'You have a debate like this so that the entire American public, whose sons and daughters are in the military and whose lives will be at risk in war, get to see the debate and reach their own conclusion together with the elected officials about whether the mission is worth it or not,' Kaine said Monday. Communication between the White House and Congress about Iran has been limited for most members. Trump sent congressional leaders a short letter Monday serving as his official notice of the strikes, two days after the bombs fell. Trump said the attacks were 'limited in scope and purpose' and 'designed to minimize casualties, deter future attacks and limit the risk of escalation.' Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, said he wants to ask the intelligence officials what they know about the damage done by the bombings, and how successful they were. 'There's a reason why the Constitution requires the Congress to be informed and the president to seek approval in beginning a war, which is the founders thought that the people should have a say, that the president shouldn't act alone,' Blumenthal said. ___ Associated Press writers Matt Brown, Joey Cappelletti and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Hamilton Spectator
an hour ago
- Hamilton Spectator
As US cities heighten security, Iran's history of reprisal points to murder-for-hire plots
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security is warning of a 'heightened threat environment' following U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and the deputy FBI director says the bureau's 'assets are fully engaged' to prevent retaliatory violence, while local law enforcement agencies in major cities like New York say they're on high alert. No credible threats to the homeland have surfaced publicly in the days since the stealth American attack. It's also unclear what bearing a potential ceasefire announced Monday by the U.S. between Israel and Iran might have on potential threats or how lasting such an arrangement might be. But the potential for reprisal is no idle concern given the steps Iran is accused of having taken in recent years to target political figures on U.S. soil. Iranian-backed hackers have also launched cyberattacks against U.S. targets in recent years. The U.S. has alleged that Iran's most common tactic over the past decade, rather than planning mass violence, has been murder-for-hire plots in which government officials recruit operatives — including reputed Russian mobsters and other non-Iranians — to kill public officials and dissidents. The plots, which Tehran has repeatedly denied engineering, have been consistently stymied and exposed by the FBI and Justice Department. 'You run into this problem that it's not like there's this one sleeper cell that's connected directly to command central in Iran. There's a lot of cut-outs and middlemen,' said Ilan Berman, a senior vice president of the Washington-based American Foreign Policy Council. 'The competence erodes three layers down.' Whether Iran intends to resort to that familiar method or has the capacity or ambition to successfully carry off a large-scale attack is unclear, but the government may feel a need to demonstrate to its people that it has not surrendered, said Jon Alterman, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'The capability to execute successfully is different from the capability to try,' he said. 'Showing you're not afraid to do this may be 90% part of the goal.' Hours after the attack on Saturday evening U.S. time, FBI and DHS officials convened a call with local law enforcement to update them on the threat landscape, said Michael Masters, who participated in it as founding director of Secure Community Network, a Jewish security organization that tracks Iranian threats. The DHS bulletin released over the weekend warned that several foreign terror organizations have called for violence against U.S. assets and personnel in the Middle East. It also warned of an increased likelihood that a 'supporter of the Iranian regime is inspired to commit an act of violence in the Homeland.' 'The amount of material that we're tracking online is at such a fever pitch at the moment,' Masters said. A plot against President Donald Trump The Justice Department in November disclosed that it had disrupted a plot to kill Donald Trump before the 2024 election, a reflection of the regime's long-running outrage over a 2020 strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani. The scheme was revealed to law enforcement by an accused Iranian government asset who spent time in American prisons for robbery and who is alleged to maintain a network of criminal associates enlisted by Tehran for surveillance and murder-for-hire plots. The man, Farhad Shakeri, told the FBI that a contact in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him last September to set aside other work he was doing and assemble a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, authorities have said. He said the official told him if he could not put together a plan within that timeframe, then the plot would be paused until after the election because the official assumed Trump would lose and that it would be easier to kill him then, according to a criminal complaint. Shakeri disclosed some of the details of the alleged plots in a series of recorded telephone interviews with FBI agents while in Iran, the complaint said. The stated reason for his cooperation, he told investigators, was to try to get a reduced prison sentence for an associate behind bars in the U.S. Shakeri is at large and has not been apprehended. A plot against John Bolton John Bolton was ousted from his position as Trump's national security adviser months before the Soleimani strike, but he nonetheless found himself targeted in a plot that U.S. officials say was orchestrated by a member of the Revolutionary Guard and involved a $300,000 offer for an assassination . Unbeknownst to the operative behind the plot, the man he thought he was hiring to carry out the killing was actually a confidential informant who was secretly working with the FBI. The Justice Department filed criminal charges in August 2022 even as the operative, Shahram Poursafi, remained at large. A plot against Masih Alinejad Sometimes the intended target is not a U.S. government official but rather a dissident or critic of the Iranian government. That was the case with Masih Alinejad , a prominent Iranian American journalist and activist in New York who was targeted by Iran for her online campaigns encouraging women there to record videos of themselves exposing their hair in violation of edicts requiring they cover it in public. Two purported crime bosses in the Russian mob were convicted in March of plotting to assassinate her at her home in New York City in a murder-for-hire scheme that prosecutors said was financed by Iran's government. Prosecutors said Iranian intelligence officials first plotted in 2020 and 2021 to kidnap her in the U.S. and move her to Iran to silence her criticism. When that failed, Iran offered $500,000 for Alinejad to be killed in July 2022 after efforts to harass, smear and intimidate her failed, prosecutors said. A plot against a Saudi ambassador Underscoring the longstanding nature of the threat, federal prosecutors in 2011 accused two suspected Iranian agents of trying to murder the Saudi ambassador to the United States. The planned bomb attack was to be carried out while envoy Adel Al-Jubeir dined at his favorite restaurant in Washington. And as is common in such plots, the person approached for the job was not an Iranian but rather someone who was thought to be an associate of a Mexican drug trafficking cartel who was actually an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Intelligence leaders are set to brief Congress on Trump's Iran strikes
'We expect them to explain to the American people what were the results in terms of actually thwarting Iran's capacity to become a nuclear power and what are the Trump administration's plans to avoid another potentially disastrous war in the Middle East, where thousands of American lives are potentially at risk,' said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The separate briefings for the House and Senate will be led by CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, along with Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and deputy secretaries of state Christopher Landau and Steve Feinberg. Advertisement The meetings could turn contentious as many lawmakers feel they have been left in the dark on what led to the strikes and amid escalating tensions between the White House and Congress over the role of the United States internationally — disagreements that don't always fall along party lines. Democrats have been generally suspicious of Trump's strategy, and his motives abroad, but some believe the U.S. could have a role in supporting Israel against Iran. Others strongly believe the U.S. should stay out of it. Advertisement Some of Trump's strongest Republican supporters agree with the Democrats, echoing his earlier arguments against 'forever wars.' But many others in the party enthusiastically backed the strikes, saying he should have the power to act on his own. 'President Trump deserves all the credit,' said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., after Trump said there would be a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. 'This is what peace through strength looks like.' Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, suggested in a post on X that Trump should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., posted: 'Historic! The President of Peace!' Democrats said they would be looking for more information about the ceasefire that Trump claimed on social media. Israel and Iran did not immediately acknowledge any ceasefire. After Iran's retaliation on the U.S. base in Qatar on Monday, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said he wanted an additional classified briefing 'laying out the full threat picture, the intelligence behind Iran's retaliation, and the details, scope, and timeline of any U.S. response.' Senate Democrats are also forcing a vote as soon as this week on a resolution by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., requiring congressional approval for specific military action in Iran. 'You have a debate like this so that the entire American public, whose sons and daughters are in the military and whose lives will be at risk in war, get to see the debate and reach their own conclusion together with the elected officials about whether the mission is worth it or not,' Kaine said Monday. Advertisement Communication between the White House and Congress about Iran has been limited for most members. Trump sent congressional leaders a short letter Monday serving as his official notice of the strikes, two days after the bombs fell. Trump said the attacks were 'limited in scope and purpose' and 'designed to minimize casualties, deter future attacks and limit the risk of escalation.' Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, said he wants to ask the intelligence officials what they know about the damage done by the bombings, and how successful they were. 'There's a reason why the Constitution requires the Congress to be informed and the president to seek approval in beginning a war, which is the founders thought that the people should have a say, that the president shouldn't act alone,' Blumenthal said. ___ Associated Press writers Matt Brown, Joey Cappelletti and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
