The Justice Department appeared to contradict itself in its prosecution of the Texas Children’s whistleblower who exposed secret transgender procedures, according to the doctor’s legal team.
Dr. Eithan Haim revealed that Texas Children’s Hospital broke a promise to end its transgender program in a story published by City Journal last year. The DOJ charged Haim with four felony counts related to the leaking of patient records. However, legal documents reported on Monday by The Daily Wire revealed the DOJ may have conceded a core argument in the case.
The DOJ previously claimed in its lawsuit that Haim accessed and leaked patient records at the hospital after the conclusion of his surgical rotation in January 2021. Haim’s legal team said this argument was disproven by DOJ records released Friday, which revealed Haim worked at Texas Children’s nine times between January 20, 2021, and April 14, 2023.
“The entire premise of the government’s case has been that Dr. Haim was an interloper, falsely claiming responsibility for TCH patients to hide some nefarious and malicious reason for accessing TCH records,” the defense’s court filing reads, as reported by The Daily Wire.
“This rested on the foundational premise that Dr. Haim treated no patients at TCH after January 2021. But the government’s Friday the 13th disclosure has now blown apart this entire premise,” the filing continues.
Haim’s lawyer, Marcella Burke, said the court filings “blow apart” the DOJ’s case.
“The government admits evidence that contradicts their allegations against Dr. Haim,” she told The Daily Wire. “The government’s own disclosures blow apart their allegations. They have both the facts and the law wrong and we look forward to clearing this up so Dr. Haim can move on with his life.”
The Southern District of Texas, which is heading the DOJ lawsuit, did not respond to a request for comment.
Haim leaked documents at Texas Children’s Hospital that revealed doctors continued their transgender program after CEO Mark Wallace promised to end it in response to legal threats from Attorney General Ken Paxton, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. The documents revealed the program continued treating patients as young as 11.
Another one of Haim’s lawyers, Ryan Patrick, said the DOJ botched its prosecution of Haim.
“Until Friday night, the government has insisted to the defense and the judge that Dr. Haim had zero reason to access TCH medical records,” he told The Daily Wire. “Instead, what this shows is the government convinced a grand jury to indict Dr. Haim without the FBI requesting a basic text search of his name inside the medical record system. It appears that nearly everything the government thought it knew is now wrong.”
Wallace announced his retirement from Texas Children’s this month.
DX reached out for comment to the entirety of the Texas Children’s Hospital leadership team. None of them responded.
The leadership team includes Wallace; Debra F. Sukin, president; Weldon Gage, executive vice president and chief financial officer; Dean Andropoulos, anesthesiologist-in-chief; Michael A. Belfort, obstetrician/gynecologist-in-chief; Larry Hollier Jr., surgeon-in-chief; Thierry Huisman, radiologist-in-chief; Lara Shekerdemian, pediatrician In-chief; Jeffrey Shilt, community-In-chief; James Versalovic, pathologist-in-chief; Huda Zoghbi, research-in-chief; Linda Aldred, executive vice president and chief human resources officer; Myra Davis, executive vice president and chief information and innovation officer; Dan DiPrisco, executive vice president; Matt Girotto, executive vice president; Keith Nelson, executive vice president and chief investment office; Tabitha Rice, executive vice president; and Russ Williams, senior vice president.
Haim described the DOJ’s case as a political prosecution.
“The reason they have to come after me is to make an example out of me so other whistleblowers don’t speak out like I did,” Haim previously told DX. “In this case, the process is the punishment.”