Senate Finance Committee RFK Jr. Inquiry: Wyden and Alsobrooks Seek Samoa-Trip and Gift Records
Two Democratic senators have opened inquiries into Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - one into whether he lied to Congress about a 2019 trip to Samoa, and a second into $250,000 in luxury travel and lodging from a top donor. Both are document requests, not findings.
WASHINGTON - Two Democratic senators have launched an investigation into whether Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lied to Congress during his 2025 confirmation hearing, the Associated Press and CNN reported Thursday. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland told Children's Health Defense, the nonprofit Kennedy chaired until December 2024, in a letter sent Wednesday that they are starting the investigation and asked the group for a broad range of documents by Dec. 4.
The inquiry centers on Kennedy's account of a 2019 trip to Samoa, months before a measles outbreak swept the country. Kennedy testified at his confirmation hearings that the trip had, in his words, "nothing to do with vaccines." The senators' letter says they are investigating evidence that Kennedy, in their allegation, "unlawfully lied" to Congress on more than one occasion, following August reporting by the AP and the Guardian based on documents obtained through a public-records lawsuit. The letter is a request for records, not a subpoena, and it establishes no finding: the requests cover Kennedy's Samoa travel and communications with Samoan officials, his 2024 presidential campaign, his confirmation process, and communications between the group and federal health officials since January 2025. The reports read this cycle included no response from Kennedy or his department.
In a separate inquiry announced the same day, Wyden and Alsobrooks are probing gifts to Kennedy from Gavin de Becker, described by the Senate Finance Committee as a top donor and former employee. The committee's release puts the value at $250,000 in luxury travel and lodging, including flights to Fiji and Greece and the use of de Becker's property in Washington, D.C. Their letters seek the dates of every flight de Becker paid for and every stay in his property, ask whether the goods and services were treated as gifts or business expenses on tax returns, and ask Kennedy to clarify his compliance with federal ethics rules.
Wyden is expected to assume the Finance Committee chairmanship when Democrats take majority control in January, and Alsobrooks serves on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which also oversees the health department. The AP reported the Kennedy inquiry is one of a vast array of investigations planned into the Trump administration after Democrats regained control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections. Alsobrooks posted on Nov. 4, in her own words, "The time is now. RFK Jr. must resign or be fired." What the documents, if produced by Dec. 4, actually show is a question the inquiry has not yet answered.
