Wyden opens probe into whether RFK Jr lied to Congress about Samoa trip

Wyden, the Oregon Democrat set to chair the Senate finance committee, sent a letter Wednesday to Children's Health Defense demanding documents tied to a 2019 trip Kennedy took to Samoa, according to the Guardian, which obtained the letter. Maryland Democrat Angela Alsobrooks co-signed it. The two lawmakers said they are investigating evidence that Kennedy, now Health and Human Services secretary, lied to Congress multiple times.

At the center of the probe: Kennedy's sworn claim during his January 2025 confirmation hearings that his Samoa visit had nothing to do with vaccines. Letters obtained by the Guardian and the Associated Press through an open records lawsuit by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press show otherwise. In a January 2019 letter to Samoa's prime minister, Kennedy said he wanted to study the MMR vaccine, using the words vaccine or vaccination eight times. The prime minister wrote back a month later inviting him.

Kennedy made the trip as chair and chief legal counsel of CHD, months before a measles outbreak killed 83 people in Samoa, mostly children under five. Samoan officials and critics have said his presence emboldened anti-vaccine activists and worsened a vaccination crisis. Kennedy has denied discouraging vaccination. HHS has called any suggestion he lied under oath false and defamatory.

Wyden is aiming at the machinery behind Kennedy's rise. The letter seeks records on travel to Samoa by Kennedy or other CHD employees and associates, communications with Samoan officials, his presidential campaign and confirmation process, and his speech to CHD's September convention. It also asks for all communications between CHD and federal officials since 20 January 2025. The senators wrote that unvaccinated children have died preventable deaths during measles outbreaks, and that they intend to hold Kennedy accountable for false statements to Congress.

CHD did not respond to requests for comment, and HHS did not immediately comment. The group has until 4 December. The letter carries no subpoena power, but Tim Stretton of the watchdog Project on Government Oversight said it should not be ignored. It is really in their interest now to cooperate in a good faith effort, Stretton said, adding that the committee could issue subpoenas if they refuse.

Knowingly giving material false testimony to Congress is a crime carrying a possible prison sentence, though it is rarely prosecuted. Wyden previously pushed for a criminal investigation and said in August he would press Republicans to refer Kennedy to the Justice Department. Bernie Sanders, the incoming chair of the Senate health committee, has said he is open to impeachment, and incoming senator Annie Andrews, a South Carolina pediatrician, has called for it. Legal experts have said a Trump Justice Department is unlikely to prosecute, but Kennedy's statements could fuel hearings or an impeachment inquiry.