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A junior sailor tried to get hold of President Joe Biden’s restricted medical records three times in a single day in February “out of curiosity,” the Navy revealed Tuesday.
The name of the sailor has not been shared, but he was assigned to the Navy’s hospital corps and stationed at the major medical center that is Fort Belvoir in Virginia, a US official told CBS News. He was administratively disciplined following an investigation that ended in April, according to CBS News.
The sailor went into a database for the military medical system, known as the Genesis Medical Health System, three times on February 23, but he didn’t manage to “pull up the right Joe Biden,” the official added.
Navy Commander Tim Hawkins told CBS that “The MHS Genesis system is a secure health system and at no time was the President’s personal information compromised.”
An investigation by the Navy Criminal Investigative Service began three days later, after a co-worker reported the incident. The sailor said during the investigation that he had searched the president’s name in the database “out of curiosity.”
The investigation concluded on April 24, finding that the sailor “never reached the president’s medical record.” Biden’s record is restricted and couldn’t have been found by searching the system, the official said.
The White House told the network that Biden was made aware of the attempts to find his medical records within hours, as staffers were alerted to the incident by the Department of Defense.
The sailor was active in the Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command at Fort Belvoir, but the president’s annual physicals as well as any emergency medical care take place at the Walter Reed National Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C.
Biden had his annual physical at the Bethesda center on February 28, just two days after the investigation began. The physical “was previously planned and was not impacted by this incident,” the White House told CBS.
The physician to the president, Kevin O’Connor, wrote in a memo released that same day that “The president feels well and this year’s physical identified no new concerns.”
He added: “He continues to be fit for duty and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations.”
Biden is facing increasing concerns about his cognitive ability after the first presidential debate late last month, when he appeared confused, losing his train of thought on several occasions and making a number of gaffes.
Reacting in part to his frail and raspy voice, staffers put out a message to reporters in the middle of the debate that the president was suffering from a cold. Biden has subsequently cited his extensive travel schedule as being partially responsible, but he has also acknowledged that he had a “bad night” and that he “screwed up.”
Despite the pressure ramping up for Biden to step aside as the Democratic nominee, the president has been defiant in his refusal to end his campaign.
