FIRST ON FOX: House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., appears to be shooting down a request by a key player in the former Biden administration to suspend his probe into whether ex-President Joe Biden's top allies "covered up" evidence of his mental and physical decline.
Former White House physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor's attorneys released a statement after his appearance before House investigators on Wednesday, calling for Comer's probe to pause while a parallel federal investigation was ongoing.
Comer told Fox News Digital it was "another tactic to avoid testifying about the cover-up of President Biden's cognitive decline."
"Dr. O'Connor doesn't want to give the American people the truth about President Biden's cognitive decline, and his attorneys are throwing out every excuse to see what sticks. We requested his testimony over a year ago, but the Biden White House blocked him from appearing before the Oversight Committee," Comer said. "Now that we've compelled him to come forward and the White House waived executive privilege, Dr. O'Connor has resorted to pleading the Fifth Amendment to keep the truth hidden."
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Comer argued there was "longstanding precedent" for simultaneous probes between Congress and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The Kentucky Republican subpoenaed O'Connor to appear before his committee, which is also investigating whether any Biden administration decisions were signed off via use of an autopen, and whether it was with the then-president's knowledge.
Biden allies have pushed back, arguing the president was the final sign-off on every decision.
But unlike a previous deposition with ex-Biden aide Neera Tanden, which lasted hours behind closed doors, O'Connor's sit-down lasted roughly 30 minutes before he and his lawyers left the room.
"No comments to press," one of his lawyers said in response to Fox News Digital's shouted question.
A video of the deposition shared by the House Oversight Committee shows O'Connor invoking the Fifth Amendment for all questions after his name.
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His lawyers insisted he did so out of concerns that House investigators would press him to violate patient-physician privilege. An Oversight Committee aide responded, "Doctor-patient objection would have meant he would have stayed and answered questions that didn't implicate such privilege. Instead, he took the Fifth to all and any potential questions."
"This Committee has indicated to Dr. O'Connor and his attorneys that it does not intend to honor one of the most well-known privileges in our law - the physician patient privilege. Instead, the Committee has indicated that it will demand that Dr. O'Connor reveal, without any limitations, confidential information regarding his medical examinations, treatment, and care of President Biden," the attorney statement said.
"Revealing confidential patient information would violate the most fundamental ethical duty of a physician, could result in revocation of Dr. O'Connor's medical license, and would subject Dr. O'Connor to potential civil liability. Dr. O'Connor will not violate his oath of confidentiality to any of his patients, including President Biden."
Pointing out that a similar investigation was launched by the DOJ, they added, "We believe that the Committee should hold its investigation in abeyance until any criminal investigation has concluded."
Pleading the Fifth Amendment was not an admission of any guilt, the lawyers said.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who made a surprise appearance at the interview, similarly defended O'Connor while citing the DOJ probe.
"As someone who has served as a criminal defense attorney and actually been in courtrooms, it's kind of astounding to hear someone say, if you invoke the Fifth Amendment, that is only because you are guilty," Crockett said.
"We have a constitutional right that anyone who may be under fire can invoke. And unfortunately, with this rogue DOJ, it has decided that it wants to run a contemporaneous investigation, criminal investigation, involving the doctor - I think he did what any good lawyer would advise him to do."
But Comer's Thursday statement to Fox News Digital signals he will press on with the probe.
O'Connor's lawyers pointed Fox News Digital to their prior statement when reached for comment on Comer's remarks.
