Wyden Opens a Probe Into Kennedy’s Samoa Testimony

SKSam Kowalski · Socialist · Nov 12 at 3:40 PM

Published November 12, 2026. The RFK Jr. Samoa probe began as Ron Wyden and Angela Alsobrooks questioned Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s account of his 2019 visit. Their inquiry centers on a sharp contradiction. In his 2025 confirmation hearings, Kennedy said vaccines were not the reason for his trip. Yet a letter to Samoa’s prime minister beforehand discussed studying the MMR vaccine. The senators are seeking records from Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine nonprofit Kennedy once led. This is an investigation, not a finding of guilt. Kennedy and the Health and Human Services Department dispute the allegation. The newly reported inquiry makes that distinction essential, even as its underlying documents raise serious questions.

The central evidence came from letters obtained through an open-records lawsuit. The Associated Press and the Guardian reported on them in August. In January 2019, Kennedy wrote to then-prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi about studying Samoa’s experience with measles, mumps and rubella vaccines. He also asked whether broader safety concerns existed. He used the terms “vaccine” or “vaccination” eight times. The prime minister replied the next month, welcoming an assessment of the vaccines and inviting Kennedy to visit. The AP account explains how that correspondence conflicts with Kennedy’s testimony to senators considering his nomination.

The trip took place in June 2019, amid a public-health crisis already shaped by events in Samoa. In 2018, two children died after receiving improperly mixed MMR vaccines. The nurses responsible were charged with manslaughter. The government then halted vaccinations until April 2019. Immunization rates fell. A measles outbreak began that September, ultimately causing 5,700 cases and 83 deaths. Most of those who died were children under five. Samoan officials and other critics have argued that Kennedy’s presence emboldened anti-vaccine activists and made the crisis worse. Kennedy denies discouraging vaccination or making public anti-vaccine statements during the visit. The chronology is grave, but it does not by itself prove his conduct caused the outbreak or its toll.

Kennedy has offered accounts that add weight to the inquiry, though they do not establish precisely what he told Congress. In a 2021 blog post for Children’s Health Defense, he said he attended an independence celebration. He also said he met officials to discuss systems for evaluating the health effects of medical interventions and drugs. He recalled a discussion about the prime minister’s nephew, whom he said was diagnosed with autism after a vaccine-associated fever and seizures. The reports note that medical research has debunked the claim that vaccines cause autism. Kennedy described officials as interested in measuring health outcomes while vaccinations were paused. His written communications make his claim of having no vaccine-related reason for the trip difficult to square. The exact legal implications remain unsettled.

Wyden and Alsobrooks say they are examining whether Kennedy knowingly made false statements to Congress. Such a crime can apply even when testimony is not under oath, though prosecutions are rare. The Associated Press reports Kennedy was not under oath at his confirmation hearing. The senators’ letter says they intend to hold him accountable for alleged harm to children and any false congressional testimony. HHS has repeatedly said vaccines had no connection to the Samoa visit. It has called the suggestion that Kennedy lied false and defamatory. The reports provided do not explain why his testimony differs from his letter to the prime minister. Neither HHS nor Children’s Health Defense had immediately responded to the latest requests for comment.

The records demand reaches well beyond the Samoa correspondence. The senators want documents about Kennedy’s travel and communications with Samoan officials. They are also seeking records about his 2024 presidential campaign, confirmation process, September address to the nonprofit, and communications between the group and federal officials since January 20, 2025. Children’s Health Defense must respond by December 4. The request also reflects the organization’s continuing political ties to Kennedy. Former staff have joined HHS, while the nonprofit and its leaders have publicly defended his work. Wyden is expected to chair the Senate Finance Committee when Democrats take control in January. That role would give him direct oversight of the department. Alsobrooks sits on the Senate committee overseeing health, education, labor and pensions.

This inquiry is part of a wider Democratic plan for scrutiny after the midterm elections returned control of the House and Senate to Democrats. Other lawmakers have floated investigations and possible impeachment. Bernie Sanders has said he is open to impeachment, while Democrats have also argued over whether to confront Kennedy or work with him. That internal question will matter once oversight powers change hands. The senators have also announced a separate inquiry into gifts reportedly worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that Kennedy received from a donor and former employee. These are distinct matters, not evidence for the Samoa allegation, but together they signal how broad the coming scrutiny may become. Democrats have also criticized Kennedy over a reported yacht trip, another dispute that should not be confused with the documents at the center of this inquiry.

What comes next is concrete: whether Children’s Health Defense supplies the requested records by December 4, what they show, and whether the new committee leadership pursues the matter further in January. None of that settles whether Kennedy knowingly misled Congress. That question requires evidence beyond the troubling mismatch between his letter and testimony. For my part, the most striking thing is how a paper trail can outlast a carefully chosen explanation. I’ll be watching to see whether the subpoena-sized demand produces answers, not just another round of partisan noise.

Update, November 12, 2026: The current request is for voluntary cooperation, but a refusal could bring a congressional subpoena once Democrats take control in January. Another account adds a prominent critic: Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a former emergency physician who treated measles patients in Samoa in 2019, blamed Kennedy personally for preventable deaths before his confirmation. The letter itself was more specific than the summary suggests, offering a health-informatics assessment of Samoa’s MMR experience and warning that vaccine batches could pose particular risks in smaller countries.