RFK Jr. intends to keep financial interest in some lawsuits brought by firm that challenges pharmaceutical companies
CNN
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. – the vaccine skeptic President Donald Trump has nominated to serve as Health and Human Services secretary – plans to retain his financial interest in some litigation brought by Wisner Baum, a law firm whose specialties include pursuing pharmaceutical drug injury cases.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. – the vaccine skeptic President Donald Trump has nominated to serve as Health and Human Services secretary – plans to retain his financial interest in some litigation brought by Wisner Baum, a law firm whose specialties include pursuing pharmaceutical drug injury cases. Ethics records released Wednesday indicate that Kennedy intends to keep collecting fees related to past referrals of clients to the firm, even as he would serve in a position to oversee policies that affect drug makers should the Senate confirm him to the post. Kennedy’s confirmation hearings before two Senate committees are scheduled for next week. Kennedy’s financial disclosures, filed as part of his potential role in the incoming administration and during his brief run for the presidency last year, show he has earned more than $2.4 million from the Wisner Baum arrangement in recent years. Wisner Baum is currently suing Merck over Gardasil – which is administered to young people to prevent HPV, the human papillomavirus – with a trial beginning this week in California, according to the firm’s website. Long-lasting infections with certain types of HPV can lead to cancer later in life. Wisner Baum describes itself as home to the “top Gardasil lawyers in America.” In his ethics agreement posted Wednesday, Kennedy said he would resign from his consulting arrangement with the firm if he’s confirmed by the Senate. However, he said he was entitled “to receive 10% of fees awarded in contingency cases referred” to Wisner Baum and intended to retain that contingency fee interest in cases that the HHS ethics office determines “do not involve the United States as a party and in which the United States does not have a direct and substantial interest.”
President Donald Trump this week lashed out at congressional Republicans like he rarely has before.
A Border Patrol agent shot two people in Portland, Oregon, during a traffic stop after authorities said they were associated with a Venezuelan gang, another incident in a string of confrontations with federal authorities that have left Americans frustrated with immigration enforcement during the Trump administration.
The Bella 1 had been tailed by a US Coast Guard cutter across the Atlantic Ocean for almost two weeks when the ship’s crew employed a novel tactic to evade the US military: painting a Russian flag on its hull.
The Washington National Opera on Friday announced it is parting ways with the Kennedy Center after more than a decade with the arts institution.
‘It’s uninvestible’: Trump’s Venezuela pitch met with skepticism from oil executives
FBI Director Kash Patel has named Christopher Raia, a seasoned career agent, to replace Dan Bongino as deputy director, according to people briefed on the matter.
President Donald Trump faced Republican defections on a series of split votes this week, but his willingness to call out members of his own party convinced some wavering lawmakers to stay in line.
Trump’s description of the Mexican trafficking world – one dominated by a few cartels that can be swiftly defeated – is at odds with how the crime organizations actually operate, experts say.
The Virginian man accused of planting two bombs in Washington, DC, five years ago pleaded not guilty Friday to federal charges of transporting and attempting to use explosives.
A US State Department team traveled to Venezuela on Friday for the first time since the ouster of Nicolás Maduro, according to a US official. CNN’s Stefano Pozzebon reports from Bogota.
Oregon authorities are investigating a shooting by a Border Patrol agent in Portland that wounded two people federal authorities say are tied to a violent international gang – an incident that renewed questions about the Trump administration’s handling of its immigration crackdown in the city and across the US.
A US State Department team traveled to Venezuela on Friday for the first time since the ouster of Nicolas Maduro, according to a US official.
Mutual distrust between federal and state authorities derailed plans for a joint FBI and state criminal investigation into Wednesday’s shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer, leading to the highly unusual move by the Justice Department to block state investigators from participating in the probe.