U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, denouncing the Justice Department’s prosecution of Dr. Eithan Haim and requesting all documents related to the agency’s investigation. President Biden’s Justice Department indicted Dr. Haim after he blew the whistle on Texas Children’s Hospital for secretly conducting illegal child sterilization surgeries in the name of transgender healthcare.
“This prosecution is intended to silence Dr. Haim, deter future whistleblowers, and allow deception and medical malpractice to continue apace. The Biden Administration is obviously doing this at the behest of far-left activists, whose views on youth gender medicine are wildly out of step with scientific evidence and the emerging medical consensus,” wrote Senator Hawley.
“Accountability is coming. You both must immediately take steps to preserve all documents related to this case, in anticipation of future investigation,” he concluded.
Senator Hawley has previously fought against medical abuses at the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in Missouri.
Senator Hawley has also introduced the Protecting Our Kids from Child Abuse Act, which would allow those harmed by gender-transition procedures as minors to bring lawsuits against the participating individuals and entities.
Read the full letter here or below.
June 20, 2024
Dear Attorney General Garland and Director Wray:
The world is awakening to the reality that for years, youth gender medicine has gone horribly awry. Countless children—many with mental health conditions—have been subjected to life-altering puberty blockers, sex change hormones, and even surgical interventions without proper screening. Countries including the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, and Finland have clamped down on these practices. But not you. Instead, you are retaliating against courageous whistleblowers willing to call out this medical malpractice for what it is.
In response to public pressure and legal action by the Texas Attorney General, Texas Children’s Hospital assured Texas lawmakers that it had stopped performing gender treatments on underage children. But that was a lie, as Dr. Haim established. He did so by adducing redacted records that demonstrated the Hospital’s abuses, including the sterilization of underage children. At no point did Dr. Haim reveal confidential patient information.
Nevertheless, DOJ has now prosecuted Dr. Haim for alleged violations of HIPAA, threatening him with ten years behind bars and fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Significantly, Dr. Haim is only being prosecuted for the way in which he obtained the records in question—not for disclosing any confidential patient information, which he did not do. The information uncovered by Dr. Haim—evidence of a hospital lying to lawmakers about an issue of significant public concern—is critically important for responsible governance. And yet you are attempting to squelch it.
Let’s be clear about what’s happening here. This prosecution is intended to silence Dr. Haim, deter future whistleblowers, and allow deception and medical malpractice to continue apace. The Biden Administration is obviously doing this at the behest of far-left activists, whose views on youth gender medicine are wildly out of step with scientific evidence and the emerging medical consensus. This prosecution is an unconscionable abuse of legal process, in service of shoddy and irresponsible gender ideology.
Accountability is coming. You both must immediately take steps to preserve all documents related to this case, in anticipation of future investigation. In the meantime, please provide copies of all documents relevant to the decision to investigate and charge Dr. Haim.
I await your response.
Sincerely,
Josh Hawley
United States Senator