Key facts
- Wyden and Alsobrooks cited a Guardian report that Kennedy lied about his reasons for the 2019 Samoa trip.
- The senators seek all Children's Health Defense records on Samoa travel and on communications with Samoan officials.
- The letter also requests records on Kennedy's presidential campaign, Senate confirmation and September speech to the group.
- The letter carries no subpoena power; Children's Health Defense has until December 4 to respond.
- HHS previously called any claim that Kennedy lied under oath false and defamatory.
- Children's Health Defense and HHS did not comment to the Guardian.
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the incoming chair of the Senate finance committee, said he and Senator Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland are beginning an investigation into evidence that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr unlawfully lied to Congress. The two Democrats made the statement in a letter to Children's Health Defense sent on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, and obtained by the Guardian.
The letter asks the anti-vaccine nonprofit, which Kennedy led before entering government, for all documents related to any travel to Samoa by Kennedy or its employees and associates, and for communications with Samoan government officials. It also seeks records on Kennedy's presidential campaign, his Senate confirmation process, his speech to the group's September convention and its communications with federal officials since January 20, 2025. Children's Health Defense has a deadline of December 4.
The inquiry rests on letters obtained by the Guardian and the Associated Press through an open records lawsuit brought by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. In a January 2019 letter to Samoa's prime minister, Kennedy said he wanted to study the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in the country and used the words vaccine or vaccination eight times. The prime minister replied a month later inviting him to come. In two confirmation hearings in January 2025, Kennedy told lawmakers his visit had nothing to do with vaccines.
A measles outbreak in Samoa killed 83 people, mostly children under age five, months after the 2019 trip. Critics, including Samoan officials, have said Kennedy's presence emboldened anti-vaccine activists there. Kennedy has denied the allegations, saying he never made public statements about vaccines or discouraged Samoans from getting vaccinated. HHS previously said the visit was unrelated to vaccines and that any claim Kennedy lied under oath or to Congress was false and defamatory. It has not answered questions about why his testimony contradicted his letter.
Children's Health Defense did not respond to requests for comment and HHS did not immediately comment, the Guardian reported. The letter does not carry the legal force of a subpoena. Tim Stretton of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group, told the Guardian it would not be wise for the group to ignore it and that the committee could later issue subpoenas.
Wyden said in August 2026 he would press Republican colleagues to seek a criminal referral of Kennedy to the Justice Department. Knowingly giving material false testimony to Congress is a crime that carries a possible prison sentence, though it is rarely prosecuted. Legal experts have said a Justice Department under Trump is unlikely to prosecute, but that Kennedy's statements could be grounds for hearings or an impeachment inquiry.