Newly obtained records undermine RFK Jr. testimony to Congress, The Guardian and AP report

The Guardian and The Associated Press have obtained documents that undermine Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s testimony to Congress that his 2019 visit to Samoa ahead of a deadly measles outbreak had “nothing to do with vaccines,” the news outlets jointly reported Friday.

The documents, released in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by attorneys at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press on behalf of the AP and reporter Michelle Smith, include emails from the U.S. embassy and United Nations staffers that shed light on the nature of Kennedy’s trip and suggest that “his concerns about vaccine safety motivated the visit,” according to The Guardian and the AP. 

Now, three members of Congress and the governor of Hawaii, a medical doctor who responded to the epidemic, say the revelations are evidence Kennedy lied to the Senate at confirmation hearings to appoint him as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, a position in which he has overseen a dramatic overhaul of the country’s immunization policy amid rising rates of vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles. 

Kennedy’s spokespeople at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services didn’t respond to requests for comment from The Guardian and the AP. 

Kennedy’s trip to the Pacific Island nation, where he reportedly met with its prime minister, anti-vaccine activists, and a U.S. embassy staff member, drew renewed scrutiny after he announced his bid for the 2024 U.S. presidential election. 

While Kennedy has continued to deny responsibility for the measles outbreak, Samoan officials have accused him of spreading anti-vaccine misinformation that contributed to the epidemic, which affected thousands and killed 83 people, mostly young children. 

In 2023, Smith, then a reporter for the AP, submitted a FOIA request to the U.S. Department of State seeking records related to Kennedy’s visit and the U.S. embassy staff’s response to the country’s low vaccination rates. But the request languished for nearly two years without a substantive response. 

On behalf of the AP and Smith, Reporters Committee attorneys sued the U.S. Department of State for the records in July. The State Department turned over the first batch of responsive documents last month, which The Guardian and the AP relied on for their report.

“Thank you to the Reporters Committee for helping us shine a light,” Smith, now a reporter for The Guardian, wrote on Bluesky.

The AP and Smith are represented in this FOIA case by Reporters Committee attorneys Adam Marshall and Gunita Singh and RCFP legal fellow Rachel Seller. 

The Reporters Committee has an extensive track record of suing to shake loose government records on issues in the public interest. Last year, for example, the organization’s attorneys filed FOIA lawsuits against federal agencies for access to records related to immigration, government censorship, threats to press protections, the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the federal government, and more. 

“People have a right to know about what their government is doing, whether it’s the basis for immigration-related detentions or the efforts of the Federal Communications Commission to investigate news media organizations,” Marshall said in a Q&A about the Reporters Committee’s expanding docket last year. “Democracy can’t function without an informed public, so we’re doing what we can to pry information out of the government.”

Check out reporting from The Guardian and the AP to learn more about the newly released records.