Ron Wyden opened an investigation on Wednesday into whether Robert F Kennedy Jr unlawfully lied to Congress about his 2019 trip to Samoa, pressing for extensive records from Children’s Health Defense as the Senate starts to dig into what Kennedy told lawmakers in January. Angela Alsobrooks joined Wyden in signing the letter.
The request is aimed at documents tied to Kennedy’s time in Samoa, when he was the chair and chief legal counsel of Children’s Health Defense. Wyden, the incoming chair of the Senate finance committee, said the inquiry begins with evidence that Kennedy may have misled Congress on multiple occasions.
The reason the issue is back in focus is simple: Kennedy told lawmakers in two confirmation hearings in January 2025 that his visit to Samoa had nothing to do with vaccines. But letters obtained by and the point the other way. In a January 2019 letter to the Samoan prime minister, Kennedy said he wanted to study the MMR vaccine in Samoa, and the letter used the words vaccine or vaccination eight times.
That paper trail matters because the trip has long been one of the most criticized episodes in Kennedy’s career before he entered government. A month after his letter, the Samoan prime minister responded and invited Children’s Health Defense to come to Samoa. Just months after the 2019 trip, a measles outbreak in Samoa killed 83 people, mostly children under age five. Critics, including Samoan officials, said Kennedy’s presence emboldened anti-vaccine activists and worsened an already fragile vaccination crisis.
Kennedy has denied allegations that he gave a public statement about vaccines or discouraged Samoans from getting vaccinated. HHS had previously said his visit to Samoa was unrelated to vaccines, and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately comment on Wednesday. Children’s Health Defense also did not respond to requests for comment.
The next step is not a verdict but a records fight. Wyden is seeking documents that could show what was planned, what was said and whether Kennedy’s testimony matched the written record. If the records confirm that mismatch, the inquiry will move from political embarrassment to a direct challenge over whether a sitting health secretary told Congress the truth.
