Senators probe RFK Jr.'s Samoa trip testimony after AP and Guardian showed documents that refute it
NEW YORK (AP) — Two Democratic senators are launching an investigation into whether Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lied to Congress about his reason for a 2019 trip to Samoa after The Associated Press and The Guardian published documents in August refuting his testimony.
AP and Guardian reporting in August showed that while Kennedy repeatedly told senators who held the key to his confirmation last year that his visit to Samoa before a deadly measles outbreak had “nothing to do with vaccines,” a letter he sent to the Samoan prime minister ahead of the trip showed otherwise. In the letter, Kennedy used the words vaccine or vaccination eight times.
The new inquiry is one of a vast array of investigations planned into the Trump administration after Democrats regained control of the House and Senate from Republicans in the midterm elections.
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., said in a letter Wednesday to Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit group known for anti-vaccine activism that was formerly chaired by Kennedy, that they were starting an investigation.
The lawmakers asked the group for a broad range of documents related to Kennedy’s Samoa travel, his 2024 presidential campaign and his Senate confirmation process. The letter also requested all communications between the group and federal government officials since President Donald Trump's second term began in January 2025. The senators gave the group a deadline of Dec. 4 to comply.
“We intend to hold Secretary Kennedy accountable for the grave harm he has caused to vulnerable children,” Wyden and Alsobrooks wrote in their letter. “We also 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.”
The Department of Health and Human Services has maintained that the Samoa visit “was unrelated to vaccines.” In response to an AP inquiry in August, it said “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 under oath during his confirmation hearing. Knowingly giving material false testimony to Congress is a crime that carries a possible prison sentence regardless of whether a person is under oath, though it is rarely prosecuted.
Spokespeople for Children’s Health Defense and HHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Kennedy’s Samoa visit has become one of the most contentious events in his career. At the time, he was leading Children’s Health Defense. Critics said the visit fueled anti-vaccine sentiment in Samoa, which later experienced the measles outbreak that killed 83 people, mostly children under 5.
In the letter reported by the AP and Guardian, dated Jan. 20, 2019, Kennedy addressed then-Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi and described his desire to study Samoa’s use of the MMR vaccine.
Kennedy speculated that the deaths in Samoa may have been caused by issues with different vaccine lots. Writing on CHD letterhead, he said his team wanted to evaluate whether that was the case through a “detailed health informatics assessment.”
He expressed his belief that it was difficult and time-consuming in most of the world to investigate “adverse health events associated with vaccines” and said health information systems are rarely designed to quickly study links “between diagnoses and specific vaccination events.”
The letter did not specifically discuss anti-vaccine activism.
While in Samoa, Kennedy met with anti-vaccine activists, including one who helped arrange the trip with a U.S. Embassy employee, the AP and the Guardian previously reported.
Months later, with vaccination rates still dangerously low, measles broke out, sickening thousands.
Public health experts have said their efforts to address the outbreak were hampered by anti-vaccine activists, some of whom they claim were emboldened by Kennedy’s visit.
Wyden is expected to chair the Senate Finance Committee, which has oversight of Kennedy’s health department, when Democrats retake Congress in January. Alsobrooks serves on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which also oversees the department.
The same senators on Wednesday announced a separate investigation into hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts reportedly given last year to Kennedy by a donor and former employee.
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