Kennedy Says He Will Give HPV Vaccine Lawsuit Proceeds to His Son

New York Times

31-01-2025

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told lawmakers in responses to questions released on Friday that he would divest his interest in litigation against a major HPV vaccine maker and would sign over the financial stake to an adult son.
He also disclosed he had reached at least one settlement agreement with a company or individual that had accused him of 'misconduct or inappropriate behavior.' No other details were provided.
At his two confirmation hearings this week, several Democrat senators assailed his legal work, which included referrals for lawsuits against a vaccine maker. In the ethics agreement he provided to senators as part of the process to become the nation's health secretary, he stated that he would keep his financial stake in cases that he referred to Wisner Baum, a personal injury law firm based in Los Angeles.
Mr. Kennedy told senators on Thursday that he had sent hundreds of cases to the firm for lawsuits against the drug maker Merck claiming injuries from the company's Gardasil vaccine, which is given to prevent cervical cancer that can be caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV.
After fiery grilling from senators, Mr. Kennedy said on Thursday that he would relinquish his financial stake, but did not elaborate.
On Friday, he provided additional details in his written answers to the senators' questions: 'An amendment to my ethics agreement is in process,' Mr. Kennedy wrote. 'It provides that I will divest my interest in any such litigation via an assignment to my nondependent, adult son.'
Mr. Kennedy has more than one adult son, though one of them, Conor Kennedy, is a lawyer at Wisner Baum, the firm trying the cases. The younger Kennedy's biography on the firm website states that he works on litigation involving claims that the drug Zantac caused cancer and also on cases against opioid makers that claim widespread malfeasance underlying the epidemic of opioid-related deaths.
The first of many lawsuits claiming that young people were harmed by the HPV vaccine is on trial in Los Angeles Superior Court. Mr. Kennedy has used social media to promote the claims; in 2022 he posted a video to recruit additional plaintiffs. Merck said the allegations have no merit.
In that California trial, Wisner Baum lawyers are representing a young plaintiff who claims she suffered from a blood circulation disorder after receiving the HPV vaccine.
Conor Kennedy and Wisner Baum were not available for comment. Katie Miller, a spokeswoman for the elder Mr. Kennedy, did not respond immediately to requests for comment, including one asking which son would be granted the stake in litigation.
The value of Mr. Kennedy's interest in the litigation is not known. In his initial ethics agreement, he stated, 'I'm entitled to receive 10 percent of fees awarded in contingency fee cases referred to the firm.' He wrote that he is not a lawyer in any of the cases.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat of Massachusetts, who fiercely criticized the arrangement during the Senate finance hearing, said on Friday that she wanted to see the amended ethics agreement before a vote.
She noted that she was concerned about Mr. Kennedy 'leaving the window open to profit from other antivax lawsuits.'
If confirmed as secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, Mr. Kennedy would have far-reaching authority over decisions involving drug approvals, safety actions, and funding and guidance for the nation's pharmaceutical and health care companies and insurers.
Ms. Warren again on Friday demanded that he pledge to refrain from profiting from litigation against any entity regulated by the department for four years after leaving the post.
'It's also critical that the revised ethics agreement ensures that he cannot use his role as health secretary to open the floodgates to more anti-vaccine litigation and then cash in after he leaves office,' Ms. Warren wrote in a statement.
After this week's back-to-back confirmation hearings, it will be up to the Senate Finance Committee to decide whether to send Mr. Kennedy's nomination to the floor for a full vote. One influential Republican and committee member, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, is clearly agonizing over how to vote. A committee vote is likely next week.
If Mr. Cassidy, who is a physician, votes against Mr. Kennedy and no Democrats vote for him, Republican leaders might have to use a procedural tactic to send the nomination forward. Other Republicans, including Senator Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor and the former Republican leader, also seem uneasy with Mr. Kennedy. In a closely divided Senate, Mr. Kennedy can afford to lose only three votes if he is to win final confirmation.
Mr. Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer and part of a team of lawyers who won a $289 million judgment against the agricultural giant Monsanto, has spoken in the past about his belief that change cannot be made through legislation, but by legal court challenge.
'You can't do it through Congress, but you can do it by generating enough really high quality, good quality science that so that the attorneys can come in and do it and it's the market fixing the problem rather than government,' he said on a podcast during his 2024 presidential campaign.
Ethics rules bar government officials from personally benefiting from their decisions and prohibit certain sharing of wealth with a spouse or a minor child. No such prohibition extends to adult children in those laws and regulations.
Democrats expect to ask follow-up questions to get clarification on a small number of Mr. Kennedy's answers, according to two Democratic aides.
For instance, in his response about the settlement involving inappropriate behavior, Mr. Kennedy did not disclose the names of anyone involved in the settlement or settlements. Mr. Kennedy will most likely be pressed for additional details.
Mr. Kennedy was accused of sexual harassment and assault in the 1990s by Eliza Cooney, who was hired as a part-time babysitter by his family and worked with him when he taught at Pace University. At Thursday's hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, asked Mr. Kennedy about the incident.
'When you were confronted about this accusation, you said you were, quote, not a church boy, and that you, quote, have so many skeletons in my closet. You then texted Miss Cooney an apology and indicated you had no memory of what you described,' Ms. Murray said, asking pointedly whether he had made sexual advances.
'No, I did not,' Mr. Kennedy said. He added that the account had been debunked. Ms. Murray asked why he had apologized. 'I apologized for something else,' he replied.
Ms. Murray, saying that was not her understanding, moved on to other questions.