Democratic lawmakers have begun new probes into Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including whether he lied to Congress.
One investigation looks into Kennedy’s testimony during confirmation hearings in 2025 when he told senators that a trip he took to Samoa had “nothing to do with vaccines.”
Lawmakers cited recent media reports that showed Kennedy writing in 2019, the year of the trip, to the prime minister of Samoa, saying that deaths associated with the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine may have stemmed from the shot and proposing that his team conduct a “detailed health informatics assessment in Samoa of what happened with your MMR vaccines.”
While in Samoa, Kennedy met with activists who have spoken out against immunizations, according to the reports.
“Evidence thus suggests that Kennedy’s 2019 trip to Samoa was focused, in whole or in part, on vaccines,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, wrote in a letter on Nov. 11.
They said they intend to hold Kennedy “accountable for any false statements made to Congress, a crime that undermines the Senate’s ability to fulfill its constitutional duties.”
The letter was sent to the general counsel of Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit Kennedy headed before he ran for president and became health secretary. It requested documents related to Kennedy traveling to Samoa, documents related to meetings between Samoan government officials and Children’s Health Defense employees, and documents related to Kennedy’s Senate confirmation process.
Children’s Health Defense did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
The other investigation concerns gifts given to Kennedy by Gavin de Becker, a former donor to Kennedy’s presidential campaign, including flights and a stay at a property owned by de Becker.
“Federal ethics rules clearly state that Executive Branch officials may not accept gifts from any ‘prohibited source,’” Wyden and Alsobrooks told Kennedy in a missive dated Nov. 10. “Prohibited sources include anyone who ‘conducts activities regulated by the employee’s agency’ or who ‘has interests that may be substantially affected by the performance or nonperformance of the employee’s official duties.’ It seems abundantly clear that Mr. de Becker is a prohibited source and that you are not permitted to accept gifts from him while you serve as Secretary.”
De Becker has promoted ketamine, a therapy being reviewed by Kennedy’s agency, and published a book in 2025 that promotes many of the same theories about vaccines that Kennedy has, the senators said.
They asked for details of Kennedy’s relationship with de Becker, how long Kennedy stayed at de Becker’s home, the purpose of trips he reportedly took with de Becker, and whether the men had ever discussed vaccines or ketamine.
De Becker declined to comment. The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. A department spokesperson told The Associated Press, which first reported on the letter to the prime minister of Samoa, that Kennedy’s visit to Samoa was unrelated to vaccines and that “any claim or insinuation based on these letters that Secretary Kennedy lied under oath or to Congress is not only false but outright defamatory.”
Kennedy was not asked about the developments during a press conference in Washington on Thursday.
Alsobrooks and some other lawmakers have recently called on Kennedy to resign or be fired, pointing to growing outbreaks of measles and other health issues they say officials have failed to control under his watch. Democrats are set to gain control of Congress in early 2027, which comes with subpoena power, after winning a number of races in the midterms.
Kennedy has not appeared concerned, telling supporters on Nov. 9 that with the help of new White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, he expects major reforms that he has not yet been able to enact.
“The Senate no longer has any leverage over me, and that’s a big deal,” Kennedy said. “And then we have Steve Miller in, who’s a friend of our movement, and I don’t think anything is going to get in our way now.”
