Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the previous White Home doctor who handled former President Joe Biden, has agreed to seem for a transcribed interview earlier than the Home Oversight Committee on July 9, a supply accustomed to the committee’s schedule confirms to NBC Information.
O’Connor agreed to seem after being the goal of a subpoena, led by the committee’s chairman, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who’s spearheading an investigation into Biden’s alleged cognitive decline whereas in workplace. Comer is particularly targeted on Biden use of an autopen for official authorities enterprise.
Along with O’Connor, the Oversight Committee has scheduled transcribed interviews with former Biden White Home aides Neera Tanden, Anthony Bernal, Ashley Williams and Annie Tomasini. All of these aides scheduled interviews with out being subpoenaed.
O’Connor might be a key witness within the committee’s try to attempt to show their allegations that Biden’s diminished capability led to key choices being made by somebody apart from the president. The committee has but to supply up any particular proof to again up that argument.
As for using the autopen, the Division of Justice’s workplace of authorized counsel issued a memo on the subject in 2005 that concluded that the apply was authorized. A federal appeals courtroom dominated as lately as 2024 that the “the absence of a writing doesn’t equate to proof {that a} commutation didn’t happen,” when it pertains to using a presidential autopen.
Biden himself has been insistent that he was the one making the selections whereas in workplace and his former aides have persistently rejected any declare that anybody apart from the president was in cost.
“Any accusation that President Biden was not making choices is fake. President Biden made the selections concerning the pardons and the chief orders he issued, and the laws he signed into legislation,” a former official, who was not licensed to talk on Biden’s behalf, instructed NBC Information.
The Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee has additionally signaled curiosity in investigating Biden’s psychological acuity. The panel held its first public listening to on the subject final week, however the witness checklist didn’t embody anybody with first-hand data of Biden’s psychological health or decision-making whereas in workplace.
