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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Senate his 2019 Samoa trip was unrelated to vaccines; colleague emails described it as a vaccine mission

During his January 29, 2025 Senate confirmation hearings for HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified that his 2019 trip to Samoa "had nothing to do with vaccines." FOIA-released State Department emails, reported in June 2026, show that his then-colleague Dr. Michael Graven—chief information officer of Kennedy's anti-vaccine nonprofit Children's Health Defense—explicitly described the trip as a "mission" to study vaccine discontinuance outcomes and stated that Kennedy personally asked him to join. Two Democratic senators and a House member had previously stated that earlier documentary evidence showed Kennedy lied to the Senate.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

On January 29, 2025, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before the Senate Finance Committee and Senate HELP Committee during his confirmation hearings for Secretary of Health and Human Services that his 2019 trip to Samoa "had nothing to do with vaccines" and that he traveled solely to introduce a medical informatics system. Under direct questioning from Senators Ron Wyden and Edward Markey, Kennedy denied that the trip had any vaccine-related purpose.

FOIA-released State Department emails, published by The Guardian and the Associated Press in June 2026, contradict Kennedy's account. Dr. Michael Graven—then chief information officer of Kennedy's anti-vaccine nonprofit Children's Health Defense—emailed Samoan officials in March and May 2019 explicitly describing the trip as a "mission" to study "outcomes associated with the recent discontinuity in vaccinations." Graven wrote that Kennedy personally asked him to join "this mission" as a health informatician. A State Department official who was stationed in Samoa noted that Kennedy and Graven "fell far short of their goal to influence Samoan government vaccination policy."

The 2019 Samoa measles outbreak killed 83 people, mostly children under five, following a collapse in vaccination rates that anti-vaccine activists had helped encourage. Kennedy's Children's Health Defense had been actively contacting Samoan officials since 2018. Two Democratic senators and a House member stated in prior reporting that earlier documentary evidence showed Kennedy lied to the Senate during his confirmation proceedings.

Updates

2026-08-27 — Watchdog group and senator call for criminal investigation [3, 4]

Watchdog group American Oversight sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro requesting a criminal investigation into Kennedy for apparent false statements to Congress under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, citing a newly published January 20, 2019 letter in which Kennedy told Samoa's prime minister he wanted his team to conduct a "detailed health informatics assessment in Samoa of what happened with your MMR vaccines." Sen. Ron Wyden separately called for a criminal referral to the Justice Department over the same conduct. Sen. Edward Markey said the new letters show Kennedy "lied to the Senate, lied to the American people," and that he "cannot be trusted" to lead HHS; Sen. Angela Alsobrooks and Hawaii Gov. Josh Green separately renewed calls for Kennedy to resign or be removed.

Why we recorded this

Senate confirmation hearings are the constitutional mechanism through which the legislative branch exercises its advise-and-consent function over executive appointees. Kennedy's repeated denial that his 2019 Samoa trip had any vaccine purpose directly contradicted contemporaneous emails from his own nonprofit colleagues describing the trip as a vaccine mission—a false statement made under questioning from two senators in a proceeding designed to allow Congress to evaluate his fitness for office. Lying to Congress during a confirmation hearing obstructs the Senate's core constitutional role in checking executive power by preventing senators from making an informed judgment on an appointee's record and candor.

Sources

  1. New evidence casts doubt on RFK Jr testimony before Senate — The Guardian investigative accessed June 26, 2026
  2. RFK Jr. and Samoa: emails show his team's mission was vaccine-related — Associated Press investigative accessed June 26, 2026
  3. American Oversight Seeks Criminal Investigation Into RFK Jr.'s Apparent False Statements to Congress Obscuring Vaccine Focus of 2019 Samoa Trip — American Oversight primary accessed August 28, 2026
  4. Democratic senator calls for criminal investigation of RFK Jr after Guardian report — The Guardian investigative accessed August 28, 2026

See also