RFK Jr. Profited From Lawsuits Against Agency He’s Poised to Lead
(Bloomberg) -- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earned millions from his work as an attorney, including referral fees from cases filed against the agency he’s been chosen to lead, federal disclosures show.
President Donald Trump’s pick to head the US Department of Health and Human Services disclosed income of at least $11.6 million over the last two years, with $8.8 million of that amount coming from his work as an environmental lawyer with law firm Madonna & Madonna LLP, according to forms released by the Office of Government Ethics Wednesday.
Additionally, he was paid more than $850,000 over the same period for cases he referred to Wisner Baum, a national personal injury firm that’s made claims against an HHS-managed program to compensate people injured by vaccines.
Kennedy didn’t have to disclose how much of the fees he received came from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. But his ethics agreement, which spells out how he’ll avoid conflicts of interest, says he will divest his arrangement for 10% of any contingency fees Wisner Baum wins for the cases he referred.
Kennedy will still receive fees for lawsuits that don’t involve the US government, according to the disclosure. That would include payments for referring cases against Merck & Co., Inc. over its Gardasil vaccine to fellow plaintiffs’ lawyers.
A California woman’s claims against Merck — that the company misled consumers by advertising the HPV vaccine as safe, overstated its benefits and downplayed its risks — is slated to go to trial starting next week. Merck racks up more than $8 billion a year in sales of Gardasil, which is approved for use in the US for both men and women to prevent a variety of cancers. Merck denies it mishandled the vaccine and is preparing to defend itself in state court in Los Angeles.
The vaccine skeptic’s advocacy and legal work have made him a controversial pick for Trump’s cabinet. If confirmed by the Senate, Kennedy would lead a wide-ranging agency with oversight of vaccines and drug approvals. As secretary of Health and Human Services, he would have influence over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which makes recommendations for vaccine use, and the Food and Drug Administration, which decides whether to approve immunizations and other cutting-edge treatments.
The disclosure shows Kennedy held assets worth between $6.9 million and $29.5 million. The forms for nominees use broad ranges when listing their holdings. He had at least $1 million in Bitcoin, his most valuable asset, which he doesn’t plan to divest, according to his ethics agreement. Trump has promised a much more friendly regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies than former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Kennedy held much smaller stakes in a pair of biotech companies, including at least $15,000 in closely held Dragonfly Therapeutics Inc., which is developing drugs that harness the immune system to treat cancer and autoimmune disease. He held at least $1,000 in CRISPR Therapeutics AG, a developer of gene-editing treatments.
Untangling the conflicts from his law practice might prove more difficult. His law firm shed its former name, Kennedy & Madonna LLP, earlier in January and will remove all references to him from promotional materials. He’ll recuse himself from matters involving the firm for two years, his ethics agreement says. And he’ll recuse himself from any matter involving cases he referred to Wisner Baum.
Kennedy also says he resigned from his position as chairman of Children’s Health Defense in December, and pledged for the following year to not participate in matters involving the nonprofit group, which has questioned the safety of vaccines.
Kennedy’s Senate confirmation hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 29 before the Senate Finance Committee, likely pushing any vote on his nomination to February.
--With assistance from Bill Haubert, Jef Feeley, Alicia Diaz and Romy Varghese.
(Adds details about the Merck lawsuit starting in fifth paragraph)
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