Senators probing RFK Jr.'s testimony on Samoa trip after media documents refute it

NEW YORK — Two Democratic senators are launching an investigation into whether Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lied to Congress about his reason for a 2019 trip to Samoa after The Associated Press and The Guardian published documents in August refuting his testimony.

The new inquiry is one of a vast array of investigations planned into the Trump administration after Democrats regained control of the House and Senate from Republicans in the midterm elections.

Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., said in a letter Wednesday to Children's Health Defense, a nonprofit group known for anti-vaccine activism that was formerly chaired by Kennedy, that they were starting an investigation.

The lawmakers asked the group for a broad range of documents related to Kennedy's Samoa travel, his 2024 presidential campaign and his Senate confirmation process. The letter also requested all communications between the group and federal government officials since President Donald Trump's second term began in January 2025. The senators gave the group a deadline of Dec. 4 to comply.

AP and Guardian reporting in August showed that while Kennedy repeatedly told lawmakers who held the key to his confirmation last year that his visit to Samoa before a deadly measles outbreak had "nothing to do with vaccines," a letter he sent to the Samoan prime minister ahead of the trip on Children's Health Defense letterhead showed otherwise. In the letter, Kennedy used the words vaccine or vaccination eight times.

"We intend to hold Secretary Kennedy accountable for the grave harm he has caused to vulnerable children," Wyden and Alsobrooks wrote in their letter. "We also intend to hold him accountable for any false statements made to Congress, a crime that undermines the Senate's ability to fulfill its constitutional duties."

The Department of Health and Human Services has maintained that the Samoa visit "was unrelated to vaccines." In response to an AP inquiry in August, it said "any claim or insinuation based on these letters that Secretary Kennedy lied under oath or to Congress is not only false but outright defamatory."

Kennedy was not under oath during his confirmation hearing. Knowingly giving material false testimony to Congress is a crime that carries a possible prison sentence regardless of whether a person is under oath, though it is rarely prosecuted.

Spokespeople for Children's Health Defense and HHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Wyden is expected to chair the Senate Finance Committee, which has oversight into Kennedy's health department, when Democrats retake Congress in January. Alsobrooks serves on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which also oversees the department.

The same senators on Wednesday announced a separate investigation into hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts reportedly given last year to Kennedy by a donor and former employee.