White House defends transfer of Trump's medical records
Press secretary Sarah Sanders says it is standard operating procedure for the White House medical unit to take possession of a new president's medical records.
Press secretary Sarah Sanders on Tuesday acknowledged the White House “took possession” of President Trump's past medical records from his longtime physician but denied a “raid” ever took place, calling what happened “standard operating procedure.”
“As is standard operating procedure for a new president, the White House medical unit took possession of the president's medical records,” Sanders said during the daily briefing.
Earlier Tuesday, the president’s former physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, told NBC News that the president’s longtime bodyguard and an attorney, along with another man, raided his office last year to take the president’s medical records.
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Bornstein described the February 2017 incident to NBC News in a Tuesday story as a "raid" – saying it happened several days after telling a newspaper Trump had been prescribed hair growth medicine.
Asked if a raid had taken place, Sanders denied Bornstein’s characterization. “No, that is not my understanding,” she said.
Sanders emphasized that it is “standard procedure” for the medical unit to take possession of past medical records.
“Those records were transferred over to the White House medical unit, as requested,” Sanders said.
Bornstein identified longtime Trump bodyguard and aide Keith Schiller, who briefly worked in the White House, as one of those who came to the office to take the records. He also identified Trump Organization Chief Legal Officer Alan Garten, as well as another "large man.”
"They must have been here for 25 or 30 minutes. It created a lot of chaos," Bornstein told NBC.
Fox News has reached out to Bornstein’s office for comment.
Bornstein had long been Trump’s doctor. He famously declared in a December 2015 letter during the presidential race that "If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."
The questions about the medical records came on a day when Sanders addressed a number of issues, including Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen, the Iranian nuclear deal and reports that chief of staff John Kelly denigrated Trump in private and called him an idiot.
On Tuesday, Sanders read a statement from Kelly calling those stories “total BS.” Sanders also said both “the president and the chief of staff are very are happy with his position,” and denied rumors Kelly could be moved out of the West Wing to take over the Veterans Affairs department.
“No, he is not being considered for the VA secretary,” Sanders said.
Fox News’ Serafin Gomez contributed to this report.
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