New: RFK Jr. Reveals to Warren, Lawmakers Deviation from Ethics Agreement

Senators: “Your decision to withhold this information from Congress and apparent failure to report this change to agency ethics officials is deeply alarming.” “This amounts to non-disclosure to Congress and an apparent failure to adhere to reporting through required ethics channels.” Text of Response (PDF) | Text of Letter (PDF) Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) released a response from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.), revealing that RFK Jr. secretly deviated from his ethics agreement. Given this news, the senators are pushing the Secretary for answers about the credibility of his previous ethics commitments. The letter builds on an investigation by Senators Warren, Blumenthal, Alsobrooks, and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) into whether RFK Jr.’s family may have benefited financially from a $50 million settlement, while he pushed an anti-vaccine agenda as HHS Secretary. Prior to his confirmation as HHS Secretary, RFK Jr. helped spearhead a lawsuit against the vaccine manufacturer Merck & Co. (“Merck”) and the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil. RFK Jr.’s initial ethics agreement allowed him to retain a 10% contingency fee in cases that he had referred to his former law firm, Wisner Baum. After warnings from Senator Warren about this conflict of interest, RFK Jr. agreed to amend his ethics agreement to “divest (his) interest in any such litigation (related to Gardasil) via an assignment to (his) non-dependent, adult son.” RFK Jr. also signed an ethics agreement compliance certification in which he indicated that he had “completed all of the divestitures indicated in (his) ethics agreement.” However, in a new response, RFK Jr. revealed that he did not adhere to his ethics agreement, in that he did not transfer his right to receive 10 percent of fees awarded in contingency fee cases to his adult son. Instead, he referred those fees to his former law firm, Wisner Baum. “You appear to have secretly revoked your commitment to ‘irrevocably’ assign your Gardasil stake to your adult son,” wrote the senators. According to the response, RFK Jr. made this change on February 11, 2025, prior to a vote by the full Senate on February 13. Congress was not notified of this change in his divestiture process at the time, even though his nomination was under consideration by the Senate – a break from the Office of Government Ethics’ policy. “Your decision to withhold this information from Congress and apparent failure to report this change to agency ethics officials is deeply alarming,” wrote the senators . “There is no indication that your ethics agreement was updated to reflect this change, and you have provided no explanation for why the change was not publicly disclosed.” The modification also raises questions about the conditions and circumstances under which RFK Jr. decided to relinquish the stakes back to Wisner Baum. “(I)f the agreement involves any kind of implicit or explicit agreement with Wisner Baum about future payments or other future rewards in exchange for your Gardasil stake, it would prompt concerns about your ongoing conflicts of interest with the firm, and about the integrity of your decisions at the Department of Health and Human Services,” wrote the senators . In the intervening year and a half since Secretary Kennedy failed to notify Congress of this change, HHS has made significant changes to HPV vaccine policy and public health guidance while sidelining experts on the issue. These major changes raise additional concerns about the lack of disclosure to Congress and, seemingly, to ethics officials about the disposition of RFK Jr.’s interest in the HPV litigation. The senators are pushing RFK Jr. to answer questions about the terms of his agreement with Wisner Baum and the circumstances in which his ethics agreement was changed. The timeline of these events are as follow: January 21, 2025: RFK Jr. discloses he intends to keep a 10% stake in the Gardasil lawsuit in his ethics agreement. January 29, 2025: At a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) questioned RKF Jr. , then-nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), about his dangerous conflicts of interest and record of profiting from anti-vaccine conspiracies. February 1, 2025: In response to concerns raised by Senator Warren and her colleagues, RFK Jr. amends his ethics agreement and affirms that he will divest the Gardasil stake to an adult family member, which was confirmed to be his son. February 11, 2025 : RFK Jr. secretly opts to transfer the stake to his former employer Wisner Baum, a party to the Gardasil litigation, and not to his son. There is no public record of any amendment to his ethics agreement or disclosure of this change to Congress for 18 months. February 13, 2025: The full Senate votes to confirm RFK Jr. as Secretary of HHS. May 12, 2025: Secretary Kennedy signs a certification of compliance with his February 1 ethics agreement. This certification makes no mention of the change in divestiture. May 14, 2025: The HHS Designated Agency Ethics Official affirms to the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions that RFK Jr. is in compliance with his Feb. 1 ethics agreement. In this certification, Secretary Kennedy makes no mention of the material change in divestiture of his Gardasil stake. June 4, 2026: Bloomberg reports that Merck agrees to a $50 million settlement in the Gardasil lawsuit. July 29, 2026: U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) opened a new investigation to understand whether Secretary Kennedy’s family may be financially benefiting from the $50 million anti-vaccine settlement that his actions as Secretary could have influenced. The senators pushed RFK Jr. to disclose whether he or his son received any portion of the multi-million dollar payout. August 1, 2026: RFK Jr. posts on X that, “Before taking office, I relinquished any interest in potential Gardasil fees back to the Wisner Baum law firm.” August 24, 2026: Sens. Warren, Alsobrooks, Blumenthal and Wyden press RFK Jr. over his social media post in which he disclosed that he opted to transfer the stake to Wisner Baum instead of to his son. The Senators ask whether he has changed his ethics agreement and, if so, how and when any changes were made. August 26, 2026: In response to the Senators’ investigation, HHS discloses that RFK Jr. secretly opted to divest the stake to Wisner Baum on February 11, 2025, and not to his son. Senator Warren has led Senate oversight on RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine agenda and conflicts of interest as HHS Secretary: In August 2026, Senator Warren, Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote to RFK Jr. asking whether he has changed his ethics agreement, and if so, how and when any changes were made. In July 2026, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) opened a new investigation into whether Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘s (RFK Jr.) family may be financially benefiting from a $50 million anti-vaccine settlement that his actions as Secretary could have influenced. In January 2026, Senators Warren (D-Mass.), Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Markey (D-Mass.), and Alsobrooks (D-Md.) pressed RFK Jr. on his proposed overhaul of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which could threaten the domestic vaccine supply, undermine public health, and potentially enrich Secretary Kennedy’s family and close allies. In June 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.), on the eve of a key committee meeting, slammed RFK Jr. for his “reckless” and “shortsighted” decision to fire all 17 independent members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replace them with eight members who appear to be hand-picked to advance RFK Jr.’s own anti-vaccine agenda. In February 2025, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote to RFK Jr., then-nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary, pressing him to urgently resolve his serious conflicts of interest related to his stake in Gardasil lawsuits. February 1, 2025: Mr. Kennedy amends his ethics agreement and affirms that he will divest the Gardasil stake to his son. In January 2025, at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) questioned RKF Jr. , then-nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), about his dangerous conflicts of interest and record of profiting from anti-vaccine conspiracies. ###