Kennedy Would Preserve Stake in H.P.V. Vaccine Swimsuit if Confirmed

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s decide to be well being secretary, is maintaining his monetary stake in main litigation in opposition to Merck over a extensively used vaccine given to younger folks, based on ethics data made public Wednesday and courtroom paperwork. That battle of curiosity might increase questions for lawmakers as Mr. Kennedy goals to run companies that regulate the drug maker.

The ethics data stated Mr. Kennedy would proceed to gather charges for instances wherein he referred shoppers to Wisner Baum, a legislation agency suing Merck over Gardasil, a vaccine that protects in opposition to the human papillomavirus, or HPV, and is run to adolescents to forestall cervical and different cancers later in life.

The association has earned Mr. Kennedy, one of many nation’s fiercest vaccine critics, greater than $2.5 million lately, based on data filed with federal election officers for his presidential run and with the Workplace of Authorities Ethics as a part of the affirmation course of.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Kennedy didn’t reply to a request for remark.

The primary of many lawsuits claiming that younger folks have been harmed by the vaccine is on trial in Los Angeles Superior Courtroom. Mr. Kennedy has used X, the social media platform, to advertise the claims; in 2022 he posted a video to recruit extra plaintiffs. Merck stated the allegations don’t have any benefit.

Within the ethics data, Mr. Kennedy wrote that he’s entitled to obtain 10 p.c of charges “awarded in contingency charge instances referred to the agency.” The data, which famous that he’s not a lawyer in any of the instances, stated he would retain a monetary curiosity in instances even when confirmed, so long as the instances don’t contain the federal government, comparable to these introduced by means of the Nationwide Vaccine Damage Compensation Program.

Wisner Baum has paid Mr. Kennedy about $856,000 in 2024 and $1.6 million the yr earlier than, monetary data filed with the federal government present. It was not clear from the data how a lot of that cash got here from instances involving Merck. Mr. Kennedy has additionally labored with Wisner Baum on different litigation, together with instances associated to the pesticide Roundup.

Agreements just like the one submitted by Mr. Kennedy and signed by the Workplace of Authorities Ethics are primarily based on prison legal guidelines that forestall federal officers from self-dealing and laws guarding in opposition to the looks of conflicts of curiosity.

The doc outlining what Mr. Kennedy’s obligations can be will not be clear on the diploma to which he would wish to sidestep issues associated to Merck or the Gardasil vaccine, stated Richard Painter, a College of Minnesota legislation professor and former chief White Home ethics lawyer. He stated the association seems to be extremely problematic, as any motion Mr. Kennedy oversaw associated to Merck might look like motivated by his monetary curiosity in a good-looking settlement.

“I feel he’d need to recuse an enormous quantity to not look like extracting cash from Merck,” Mr. Painter stated. “And it virtually appears to be like like extortion.”

Mr. Painter stated he believed that senators ought to decline to substantiate Mr. Kennedy till he resolves the matter. Republican senators have been awaiting Mr. Kennedy’s monetary and ethics disclosures earlier than scheduling his affirmation hearings.

On Tuesday, Senator Mike Crapo, the chairman of the Finance Committee, informed a reporter the delay in receiving them meant that the committee won’t maintain a listening to for Mr. Kennedy subsequent week, as Mr. Crapo had hoped. It’s unclear whether or not the discharge of the kinds will change that.

Susanne Craig contributed reporting.