The former chief of staff to U.S. Sen. John Fetterman grew so concerned about the Pennsylvania Democrat’s behavior last year he wrote a detailed letter to Fetterman’s doctor, warning that the politician appeared to be experiencing significant mental health challenges that could pose serious risks to his well-being, according to a report.
In May 2024, Adam Jentleson wrote to David Williamson, the medical director of the traumatic brain injury and neuropsychiatry unit at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, who had overseen Fetterman’s well-publicized treatment for depression at the hospital. New York Magazine quoted the letter in an article on Friday.
“I think John is on a bad trajectory and I’m really worried about him,” Jentleson, the former chief of staff, wrote. “I’ worried that if John stays on his current trajectory he won’t be with us for much longer.”
Former aides still in touch with Fetterman’s dwindling inner circle say his behavior remains a source of concern, according to New York Magazine.
Staffers were advised not to ride with Fetterman behind the wheel, citing concerns over what they described as reckless driving.
Fetterman was speeding in June 2024 when he crashed into the back of another vehicle in Maryland, according to a police report obtained by TribLive.
The senator was westbound on Interstate 70 at 7:45 a.m. when he rear-ended a vehicle near the interchange with Interstate 68 near Hancock, Md., according to Maryland State Police.
Fetterman crashed his Chevy Traverse into the back of a 62-year-old Pennsylvania woman’s Impala. His wife, Gisele, who had been in the back seat, suffered a pulmonary contusion and spinal fractures, according to New York Magazine. Fetterman, calling from the side of the road, told a staffer he had fallen asleep while driving and gave the phone to a police officer, the magazine reported.
“It’s a miracle no one died,” the officer said, according to the magazine.
Jentleson’s email came with the subject line “concerns.” He said Fetterman ate fast food, several times a day, exhibited mood swings and questioned whether the senator was taking his medicine or getting his blood work done. “We often see the kind of warning signs we discussed,” Jentleson wrote in the email quoted by New York Magazine. “Conspiratorial thinking; megalomania (for example, he claims to be the most knowledgeable source on Israel and Gaza around but his sources are just what he reads in the news — he declines most briefings and never reads memos); high highs and low lows; long, rambling, repetitive and self centered monologues; lying in ways that are painfully, awkwardly obvious to everyone in the room.”
Fetterman told the New York Times that the magazine story was a hit piece.
Fetterman said in a statement to the Times that “my ACTUAL doctors and my family affirmed that I’m very well.”
Fetterman also pointed out that the magazine article’s author, Ben Terris, is close friends with Jentleson, who resigned last year as chief of staff, according to the Times.
Terris confirmed the friendship in his magazine piece.
Fetterman, a Democrat who lives in Braddock, where he served as mayor, suffered a stroke during his campaign for senate