DOJ drops charges against Texas doc who blew whistle on kids secret sex-change surgeries
The federal case against a Texas doctor accused of illegally leaking that a Houston hospital was secretly performing transgender surgeries on kids was dropped Friday — weeks before trial was set to begin.US District Judge David Hittner signed off on prosecutors’ request to throw out all four felony counts accusing Dr.Eithan Haim, 34, of accessing patient records from Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) under false pretenses and providing them to conservative journalist Christopher Rufo in 2023.Rufo then published a report in City Journal showing the hospital was performing so-called “gender-affirming” procedures on kids at least through May 2023, despite announcing it had stopped offering surgeries and puberty blockers a year earlier.The initial announcement followed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issuing an opinion in February 2022 declaring sex change procedures in kids a form of child abuse.The dismissal request “with prejudice” was made in a single-page joint motion filed by the feds with Haim’s consent.
The motion didn’t offer any explanation for why prosecutors wanted to drop the case with trial set to begin on Feb.10.
Haim faced up to ten years behind bars if convicted and sentenced to the maximum on all counts.Judge Hittner approved the request in an order issued later Friday.Haim’s legal team said the dismissal “fully vindicates” their client and noted that the feds can not ever revive the case against the doctor.“The United States has finally agreed to drop the case against Dr.Haim, and the Court just granted dismissal,” said defense attorney Marcella Burke said.“The fight against the evils he exposed continues, but this dismissal represents a repudiation of the weaponization of federal law enforcement and the first step in accountability for the misdeeds we have all witnessed in this case.”Prosecutors claimed that Haim — a surgeon who performed part of his residency at TCH — accessed medical records after he stopped t...