A top Democratic senator has launched an investigation into evidence that Robert F Kennedy Jr “unlawfully lied” in his 2025 confirmation hearings to become the US health secretary, citing a report by the Guardian.
Ron Wyden of Oregon, the incoming chair of the powerful Senate finance committee, is seeking extensive records from Children’s Health Defense (CHD), the non-profit anti-vaccine group Kennedy has used as a vehicle to fuel his political rise, including all documents related to a 2019 trip Kennedy took to Samoa.
“We are beginning an investigation into evidence that Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy, Jr unlawfully lied to Congress on multiple occasions,” Wyden said in a letter to the group that was sent on Wednesday and obtained by the Guardian. The letter was also signed by Angela Alsobrooks, a Democratic senator from Maryland.
In the letter, the two lawmakers cited reporting by the Guardian that indicated Kennedy lied about his reasons for going to Samoa in 2019, a trip that occurred just months before a measles outbreak killed 83 people in the Pacific island nation, mostly children under age five.
The trip, which Kennedy made as the chair and chief legal counsel of CHD, became one of the most criticized events in his career before he entered government. Critics, including Samoan officials, have said Kennedy’s presence emboldened anti-vaccine activists in Samoa, worsening a vaccination crisis. Kennedy has denied the allegations, saying he never gave any public statement about vaccines or discouraged Samoans from getting vaccinated.
“We are deeply concerned by the tactics Kennedy has used – both before and during his tenure as secretary – to stand in the way of children receiving life-saving vaccinations,” the two Democratic senators wrote. “In Samoa and in the United States, unvaccinated children have died tragic and preventable deaths during measles outbreaks. We intend to hold Secretary Kennedy accountable for the grave harm he has caused to vulnerable children. We also intend to hold him accountable for any false statements made to Congress, a crime that undermines the Senate’s ability to fulfill its constitutional duties.”
In two congressional confirmation hearings in January 2025, Kennedy told lawmakers who held the key to his confirmation that his visit to Samoa had “nothing to do with vaccines”.
But letters obtained by the Guardian and the Associated Press through an open records lawsuit brought by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press contradicted that testimony. In one he wrote to the Samoan prime minister in January 2019 before the trip, Kennedy explicitly said he wanted to study the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine in the Pacific island nation. In it, he used the words “vaccine” or “vaccination” eight times.
The prime minister responded a month later, saying Samoa could benefit from CHD’s assessment of MMR vaccines and inviting him to come.
Children’s Health Defense did not respond to requests for comment, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did not immediately comment.
HHS previously said in response to the Guardian’s reporting on Kennedy’s Senate testimony that his visit to Samoa was “unrelated to vaccines. Any claim or insinuation based on these letters that Secretary Kennedy lied under oath or to Congress is not only false but outright defamatory.” It has not provided a response to questions about why his testimony contradicted what he said in his letter to the Samoan prime minister.
By requesting documents from CHD, Wyden is aiming at the heart of Kennedy’s political machine. Since taking office, Kennedy has hired former CHD employees, including Lyn Redwood, a former CHD president who made early outreach on his behalf to Samoa. Redwood is now an employee at the HHS, reportedly working on vaccine safety. Kennedy’s closest adviser at HHS, Stefanie Spear, ran CHD’s newsletter before joining his 2024 presidential campaign.
With Kennedy now in government, CHD and its leaders often act as his most vociferous defenders, praising his work and explaining his decisions on their video podcasts, articles and on social media. Kennedy headlined CHD’s annual conference in September, where he made false and misleading claims about the safety of vaccines.
The Senate letter requested all documents related to any travel to Samoa by Kennedy or other employees or associates of CHD and any communications with Samoan government officials. It also asked for records related to Kennedy’s presidential campaign and his Senate confirmation process.
In addition, the senators requested records related to Kennedy’s speech to CHD’s September convention and all communications between CHD and federal government officials since 20 January 2025.
CHD has a deadline of 4 December.
On the night of the election, after polls closed and it became clear Democrats would take a majority of seats in the Senate, Wyden made a social media post with a direct message about accountability. “Subpoenas,” he wrote, in the one-word post. Alsobrooks, a member of the Senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions, has repeatedly called on Kennedy to resign or be fired.
The letter does not go as far as the legal force of a subpoena. But it would be a good idea to treat such a letter seriously, said Tim Stretton, of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington.
“It’s not wise to ignore it,” Stretton said. “It’s really in their interest now to cooperate in a good faith effort.”
If they don’t, he said, the committee or chair could issue subpoenas to demand the information they are seeking.
Knowingly giving material false testimony to Congress is a crime that carries a possible prison sentence, though it is rarely prosecuted.
Wyden previously called for a criminal investigation of Kennedy’s testimony about his trip to Samoa. He said in August he would be pressing Republican colleagues to issue a criminal referral of Kennedy to the Department of Justice for a criminal investigation. He said then that “when Democrats retake the majority in the Senate, RFK will be at the top of the list of Trump officials the finance committee will hold accountable for endangering American families”.
Several other Democrats have called for Kennedy to resign or be impeached. Bernie Sanders, incoming chair of the Senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions, said he is open to impeachment. And the incoming senator Annie Andrews, a pediatrician from South Carolina, has been calling for Kennedy’s impeachment since her campaign.
Legal experts have said it is unlikely the justice department under Trump would prosecute, but said Kennedy’s statements could be used as grounds for hearings, for an impeachment inquiry or to create other obstacles for the Trump administration.
