Kennedy's Letter to Samoa's Prime Minister Contradicts His Confirmation Claim That the 2019 Trip Had 'Nothing to Do With Vaccines'

Documents obtained by the Associated Press and The Guardian through a Reporters Committee lawsuit include a Jan. 20, 2019 letter from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., then chair of Children's Health Defense, to Samoa's prime minister proposing that his team "conduct detailed health informatics assessment in Samoa of what happened with your MMR vaccines." The letter, reported Aug. 27, uses the word vaccine or vaccination eight times. At his 2025 confirmation hearings Kennedy told Sens. Ron Wyden and Edward Markey his trip "had nothing to do with vaccines."

The gap matters because senators, among them Bill Cassidy, conditioned their votes on assurances Kennedy gave in those hearings. Knowingly giving materially false testimony to Congress is a crime whether or not a witness is sworn, though it is rarely prosecuted.

HHS said the visit "was unrelated to vaccines" and called any suggestion he lied "outright defamatory." Kennedy was not under oath. No congressional action has been announced.