Senators launch investigation into RFK Jr. over alleged lies in confirmation testimony

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) launched an investigation into Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday, citing allegations that he lied during his Senate confirmation hearings last year.The two Democrats accused the HHS secretary of failing to tell the truth about a 2019 trip he took to Samoa with Children’s Health Defense. During hearings in January 2025, Kennedy said the trip was not related to vaccines. The two lawmakers say a letter he wrote before the journey to then-Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Neioti Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi disproves that testimony, indicating that the trip would relate to vaccines.“We … 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,” Wyden and Alsobrooks wrote in a letter to CHD. Kennedy was not under oath during his Senate confirmation hearings.The senators requested that Kennedy’s former group hand over records connected to his Samoa travel and Senate confirmation process, among other documents. They also demanded access to all communications between CHD and the government since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025.During his Senate confirmation hearings last year, Wyden pressed Kennedy on the Samoa trip.“I went there, nothing to do with vaccines,” Kennedy replied. “I went there to introduce a medical informatics system that would digitalize records in Samoa and make health delivery much more efficient.”“My purpose in going down there had nothing to do with vaccines,” he repeated when responding to a line of questioning from Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA).A January 2019 letter Kennedy wrote to Samoan officials ahead of the trip appears to indicate his travels would be related to vaccines. The State Department released the letter in August in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press attorneys filed on behalf of the Associated Press and reporter Michelle Smith.“It is … known that vaccines vary both lot-to-lot from specific manufacturers, and between manufacturers for a single vaccine type,” Kennedy wrote in the letter. “This makes the likelihood of adverse lot and manufacturer specific effects higher for smaller nations where all vaccine can be from few or a single lot and manufacturer. I believe the deaths associated recently with MMR vaccine in the Independent State of Samoa may have been manifestations these effects. To evaluate whether or not this has been experienced in Samoa, I would propose my team conduct detailed health informatics assessment in Samoa of what happened with your MMR vaccines.”At the time, HHS denied the letter was incriminating.“Any claim or insinuation based on these letters that Secretary Kennedy lied under oath or to Congress is not only false but outright defamatory,” a department statement reads.HOUSE DEMOCRATS ACCUSE GOP OF ‘DIRTY POOL’ TACTICS AS THEY FLUB SECOND VOTE IN TWO DAYSWyden has called for a criminal investigation of Kennedy’s testimony about his trip to Samoa. In his latest initiative targeting Kennedy, the Oregon Democrat gave CHD until Dec. 4 to respond with records related to the Samoa trip and other communications concerning the health secretary.The Washington Examiner reached out to HHS for comment.