TPM: Will Dr. Bornstein press charges?
I'm guessing he might need to, to avoid facing sanctions himself. If they strong-armed him, his liability is mitigated.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/will-dr-bornstein-press-charges
Ive now spoken to a number of doctors and lawyers who practice in this area. At least in most jurisdictions, the doctor owns the original records. That is to say, you know how in the old days there were those big vaults of manila folders of medical records. That packet belongs to the doctor. You have a legal right to get copies. You may have some property interest in the information contained in those documents. You also have the right to control who accesses them. But you dont, in most cases, have any right to demand the originals.
This probably gets considerably more complicated when you have the original records in a digital form. Whats the original and whats the copy etc. But in the Bornstein case, Schiller, Garten and unidentified large man who came in apparently confiscated the original paper copies. I havent been able to figure out the law in New York State. But in most jurisdictions, Trump and anyone acting on his behalf had no right to take those documents. Unless Bornstein gave the records to them without any implicit coercion, thats theft.
The second point is that if the Trump crew went into Bornsteins files and rifled through them to find Trumps file, they had access to lots of other private and legally protected confidential medical files. Thats probably also an infraction.