Feds fed grand jury false information about ‘gender-affirmation’ announcer, appearing to censor him

The Justice Department tacitly admitted that it provided false information to a grand jury before it sued a Texas surgeon for allegedly violating federal privacy law giving activist journalist Chris Rufo documents that contradicted Texas Children’s Hospital’s claim that it ended so-called gender-affirming care for minors when The Lone Star State banned the practice.

That wasn’t enough for the federal judge overseeing the prosecution of Dr. Eithan Haim, however, to give the Houston surgeon “all grand jury testimony and evidence relevant to the allegations of committing” violations of the Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of health under false pretenses.

David Hittner, a nominee of President George W. Bush, denied it Haim’s motion for grand jury material Tuesday without elaboration. “We’re obviously disappointed,” but we will raise the issue on appeal if it comes to that, said Haim’s attorney, Ryan Patrick. Just the news Wednesday.

“The evidence speaks for itself and will prove that Dr. Haim properly obtained access and did not violate HIPAA,” lead counsel Marcella Burke later wrote in an email. They will continue to “preserve the error as we go forward,” defending it against “relentless and reckless pursuit.”

Haim filed motions to dismiss and to strike on Halloween, saying the government “failed to cure” factual errors in its first indictment and “introduced new ones of even greater gravity” in its superseding indictment, including charging it with violating a “nonexistent statutory provision.”

“They had at least 5 lawyers in this case,” Haim wrote on X that day. “None of them got this? Did any of them read it or were they just handed the indictment from somewhere else?”

Parliamentarians are watching. “LAW,” Rep. GOP state Rep. Brian Harrisona former Health and Human Services Department official from the last two GOP administrations wrote on X.

The feds are also trying to control the language Haim uses in the jury trial that begins Dec. 2. His preliminary motions ask Hittner to bar Haim to call himself a “whistleblower” and use “inaccurate and inflammatory” descriptions of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and genital surgery such as “sterilization” and “mutilation”.

“DOJ needs a show trial to avoid facing reality” about the nature of gender-affirming care, Haim wrote on Monday X.

The feds are angry with Haim and his lawyers for telling the media that his prosecution is designed to “intimidate and/or extort the defendant and silence whistleblowers,” and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tina Ansari — whose Texas law license suspended for one part of the case – is “despicable”, “she should be ashamed of herself” and has “a poor understanding of her own profession”.

Hittner should limit “testimony and argument regarding transgender care issues,” bar Haim from discussing the feds’ alleged motivation and “prosecution deviation” or “possible penalties or collateral consequences,” exclude testimony that he is a “good doctor” and ban him. from “derogatory remarks” about prosecutors and law enforcement, the filing said.

While many case records are sealed, the public can read the most important files in the case five month old case via CourtListener free.

Haim’s October 18 motion claims that the government’s original count of “violation of HIPAA under false pretenses” was based on a falsehood, that he had “no patients” at TCH after completing a rotation in January 2021, and therefore “no reason to have access ” to his electronic records. .

The feds only acknowledged on Sept. 13, four months after the indictment, that TCH found records showing that Haim had treated adult and child patients “well past” the end of his rotation — until April 2023 — and that he had given them those their records. treatment, the file says.

Two days after disclosing to Haim’s team, the DOJ said it asked TCH to turn over “all records” referring to Haim after his shift ended, “including but not limited to (electronic) records and erasing badges at TCH units,” and the feds did not tell his team that he “waived this request” nor “completed such collection from TCH”.

Haim’s lawyers requested a continuance on Sept. 26, telling Judge Hittner that the feds should have known about Haim’s post-rotation procedures because his own legal discovery documented “an audit trail” showing that Haim had registrations for TCH patients after January 2021.

It also knew that the hospital told the HHS Office for Civil Rights that Haim “properly had access” to the system “during relevant periods in 2023 because it continued to cover patients at TCH even while rotating to other hospitals “, the motion says.

Although it deleted the allegations contradicted by the TCH records and other evidence it had in the superseding indictment, the DOJ “added false allegations to all of the allegations.”

Haim deserves to see the grand jury materials because the DOJ has “repeatedly represented” to his attorneys that he has “provided full discovery of his record regarding the evidence he obtained during his investigation and the materials he intends to use at trial,” the motion states. .

DOJ October 25 opposition contends that he failed to show “with particularity” that he “knowingly sponsored false information before the original grand jury,” the motion is moot because those allegations are absent from replacing the indictment and that he cannot obtain the new transcript of the indictment by “unsupported speculation as to the adequacy of the evidence.”

He doesn’t even admit he made a mistake, describing the charges he dropped as “allegedly inaccurate” and saying Haim is “merely speculating about the evidence and theories the Government relied upon in the grand jury.”

The new indictment “only amended the charges in light of new information and narrowed the focus of the trial,” the opposition says, arguing that it is “extremely common for the Government to learn new facts or understand evidence in a new light while preparing for trial.” process. .”

Haim responded to the opposition the same day, arguing that the government falsely characterized its motion as based on “little more than guesswork and speculation.”

His team actually “explained the history of the two indictments, how the charges changed and the evidence the government had at different points in time” to suggest “a strong conclusion that the government knowingly sponsored testimony false for the superseding indictment — not to raise a triable issue, as the government asserts,” it said.

Prosecutors “triple down on the same claim in the second indictment without explanation or evidence,” Haim replied on October 27. “The feds are occupying us,” he said, pleading for donations to show “these tyrants that the days of ordinary people not fighting back are over.”

Even with a “very thin” legal team of four attorneys and a paralegal “working on cut rates,” Haim said he has already spent “well over” a million dollars in 16 months to fight the ” unprecedented legal charges… We will pay off. legal bills for decades”.

Haim’s GiveSendGo page shows it has raised about $1.16 million from nearly 14,000 people as of Thursday. Most this week are $50 and under, but two are $100 each and one is $500.

Haim’s wife, Andrea, is a federal prosecutorthat he revealed. She was six months pregnant when the first indictment was filed, tellingly Fox News she was “terrified” that her “hero” husband would miss the birth of their daughter or the “first part” of her life and would dump her employer for “a baseless political prosecution for telling the truth”.

A conservative expert Mike Cernovich said the feds exposed themselves claiming that they “fell in love with a hoax,” suggesting that prosecutors cannot “separate true testimony from false accusations.”

The feds misjudged that Haim, “a young surgeon with a new family, they’d retire in a heartbeat,” Haim replied. “Obviously they thought wrong.”