by WorldTribune Staff, June 19, 2024 Contract With Our Readers
The Biden Department of Justice has indicted a Texas doctor who exposed the Texas Children’s Hospital for continuing to operate its child gender clinic against state law after the hospital claimed it had been shut down.
The whistleblower, Dr. Eithan Haim, pleaded not guilty after being accused of HIPAA violations over exposing the hospital that was allegedly secretly conducting gender-affirming care on minors.
Haim, a surgeon who completed his residency at the Texas Children’s Hospital, has been indicted on four felony charges.
The indictment by U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani alleges that Haim “obtained unauthorized individually identifiable health HIPAA protected information on pediatric patients” and “caused malicious harm to TCH, pediatric patients at TCH and its physicians by contacting a media contact.”
Haim leaked documents to journalist Christopher Rufo in May 2023.
Rufo reported that none of the documents he obtained from Haim included patients’ personal information at the clinic. However, the indictment says the Texas Children’s Hospital was harmed by the doctor’s actions.
“As a result of HAIM’S actions, TCH resulted in financial loss, medical delays in previously scheduled patients as well as threats and harm to its patients and esteemed physicians. In furtherance of his malicious intent, HAIM obtained unauthorized HIPAA protected information and intentionally contacted a media outlet to grossly mischaracterize TCH’s medical procedures in order to damage the reputation of TCH and its physicians and to promote his own personal agenda,” the indictment states.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released an opinion in February 2022 that stated gender-affirming care for minors could be a form of child abuse under state law. The following month, Texas Children’s Hospital issued a statement saying it would stop all so-called gender-affirming treatments and surgeries on children.
In a January 2024 op-ed he wrote for the City Journal, Haim noted that three days after the statement, a surgeon implanted a hormone device in an 11-year-old girl who was experiencing gender dysphoria.
The frequency of these procedures only increased, Haim wrote.
Following a May 14, 2023 story by Rufo that included Haim’s first-hand account, the Texas legislature passed a law that banned transgender medical interventions on minors.
Haim, who faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, has vowed to fight the charges.
“They wanted to intimidate me into silence using every technique the federal leviathan had at their disposal. But they failed,” Haim wrote on X when he was initially charged. “The only way to lose is to submit to corruption. It’s time to fight back harder than ever!”
Haim’s attorney, Marcella Burke, has insisted this is government overreach.
“Our client is a mandatory reporter of child abuse who reported as a whistleblower to the State of Texas what he had seen in his hospital… this is the government going out of its way to prosecute a whistleblower,” Burke said in a statement.
Burke added when reached by Fox News Digital: “I am honored to represent Dr Haim. We received the indictment moments before his arraignment. It appears that the government has its facts wrong, they misunderstand the situation, and it’s unclear they understand how HIPAA works. Our client will have his day in court and we are going to fight these charges.”
Whistleblower on gender treatments at children’s hospital indicted in Texas added by Editor Two on
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