"I feel raped," President Donald Trump's former doctor Harold Bornstein told NBC News as he described an incident from over a year ago when the president's longtime body guard-turned-top White House aide and two others allegedly showed up at his office and confiscated all of Trump's medical records. Bornstein called it a "raid," and said it happened in Feb. 2017, two days after he told the New York Times that, for years, he prescribed Trump medication related to hair growth.
The New York doctor, who served as Trump's doctor for 35 years, said he felt "raped, frightened and sad."
"They must have been here for 25 or 30 minutes. It created a lot of chaos," Bornstein added, naming Keith Schiller, who was at the time director of Oval Office operations at the White House (he left the White House in Sept. 2017) and another "large man" as those who entered his office without warning to retrieve the president's records.
Bornstein said they also told him to remove a framed photo of himself and Trump, which had been hanging on one of the walls in the waiting room. That photo is now under a stack of papers on the doctor's book shelf, according to NBC News.
"Bornstein said he was not given a form authorizing the release of the records and signed by the president known as a HIPAA release — which is a violation of patient privacy law," NBC reported. "A person familiar with the matter said there was a letter to Bornstein from then-White House doctor Ronny Jackson, but didn't know if there was a release form attached."
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders countered the story Tuesday and said that obtaining a new president's medical records was "standard operating procedure" and there was no "raid."
In a series of interviews to the Times, Bornstein told the publication that he prescribed Trump Propecia, a prostate-related drug but which also helps to stimulate hair growth in men, as well as medication for rosacea and cholesterol. He said Trump cut ties after the story published.
"I couldn't believe anybody was making a big deal out of a drug to grow his hair that seemed to be so important," Bornstein told NBC. "And it certainly was not a breach of medical trust to tell somebody they take Propecia to grow their hair. What's the matter with that?"
In the Times article, Bornstein said he told Rhona Graff, Trump's secretary, "You know, I should be the White House physician." The doctor told NBC that after the story, Graff called him and said, "So you wanted to be the White House doctor? Forget it, you're out.'"
Bornstein is coming forward now because of the reports about Ronny Jackson, Trump's personal physician and pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, who withdrew his name after dozens of current and former White House medical staff accused him of misconduct. He was reportedly called "Candyman" for handing out medication without paperwork. Jackson denied the allegations.
Bornstein famously wrote a letter in 2015 during Trump's campaign for president saying "If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency." At 70, Trump was the oldest president to be elected into office. Several months later, Bornstein revealed that he wrote the letter in five minutes as a limo sent by Trump waited outside.
However, according to a new report published on May 1, Trump told Bornstein what to write in the letter.
"He dictated that whole letter. I didn't write that letter," Bornstein told CNN. "I just made it up as I went along."
Bornstein added that he did have a small participatory role in its creation.
"(Trump) dictated the letter and I would tell him what he couldn't put in there," he told CNN. "They came to pick up their letter at 4 o'clock or something."
Bornstein compared the letter to the plot of the movie "Fargo," describing it as a subtle expansion of the truth.
"That's black humor, that letter. That's my sense of humor," he said. "It's like the movie 'Fargo': It takes the truth and moves it in a different direction."
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