RFK Jr. made $856,559 in referral charges from the legislation agency Wisner Baum, which is suing Merck over claims its HPV vaccine brought about cervical most cancers, in accordance with new filings with the Workplace of Authorities Ethics.
Bloomberg/Getty Pictures
cover caption
toggle caption
Bloomberg/Getty Pictures
Even when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as the subsequent Well being and Human Providers secretary, he nonetheless plans to gather charges from Wisner Baum, a legislation agency suing Merck over claims that the pharmaceutical firm didn’t correctly warn shoppers about dangers from its HPV vaccine, Gardasil, in accordance with new filings with the Workplace of Authorities Ethics.
Kennedy will solely acquire the charges if Wisner Baum wins, and just for circumstances that are not towards america or during which america is not a celebration and does not have “a direct or substantial curiosity,” in accordance with the filings.
“Pursuant to the referral settlement, I’m entitled to obtain 10% of charges awarded in contingency charge circumstances referred to the agency,” Kennedy wrote in his signed ethics settlement. “I’m not attempting these circumstances, I’m not an legal professional of document for the circumstances, and I cannot present representational companies in reference to the circumstances throughout my appointment to the place of Secretary.”
The filings, submitted to the U.S. Workplace of Authorities Ethics as a part of the affirmation course of, element Kennedy’s many monetary holdings and pursuits. If he turns into HHS secretary and continues to gather charges, he can be able to doubtlessly revenue from vaccine litigation whereas additionally regulating drugmakers and exercising authority over federal vaccine coverage.
“RFK Jr’s ethics settlement is insufficient as a result of it does not deal with the bias created by his persevering with monetary curiosity within the litigation towards Merck,” Kathleen Clark, a legislation professor at Washington College in St. Louis who makes a speciality of authorities ethics wrote to NPR.
Neither a spokeswoman for Kennedy nor the Trump transition workforce instantly returned repeated requests for remark.
The paperwork and their hyperlink to the Gardasil vaccine lawsuit had been first reported by The New York Instances.
The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a listening to on Wednesday, Jan. 29, to contemplate Kennedy’s nomination to run HHS.
In Kennedy’s profile web page on Wisner Baum’s web site, he’s first recognized as “co-counsel with Wisner Baum within the Gardasil litigation,” and he has used his platforms on social media and thru his nonprofit to promote the go well with and his issues with the vaccine towards the human papillomavirus.
HPV is a quite common sexually transmitted virus that may cause cancers later in life. The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention recommends two doses of HPV vaccine at ages 11 to 12 and says it supplies protected, efficient and lasting safety towards HPV infections.
In line with Kennedy’s private monetary disclosure report, he made $856,559 in referral charges from the legislation agency. That is along with $326,056 in wage and advantages he earned from the nonprofit Kids’s Well being Protection, a company Kennedy chaired and that has been influential within the anti-vaccine motion. The nonprofit has filed almost 30 federal and state lawsuits since 2020, together with some that focus on the federal businesses he would oversee at HHS. Lots of the authorized actions taken by CHD challenged vaccines and public well being mandates.
The submitting says Kennedy took an unpaid go away of absence from the group in April 2023, when he declared his run for the presidency, and that he resigned from CHD efficient December 2024.
The submitting additionally reveals Kennedy declared a $8,848,402 share of partnership earnings from the legislation agency Kennedy and Madonna, LLP, which has been renamed Madonna and Madonna, LLP. The submitting says he obtained his “closing partnership payout in Might 2024.” He additionally made cash from one other legislation agency, publishing and varied different charges for talking and endorsements.
Edited by Scott Hensley and Jane Greenhalgh
