When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was working his way through his confirmation process early last year, he repeatedly told lawmakers that his 2019 visit to Samoa before a deadly measles outbreak had “nothing to do with vaccines.” Months later, evidence to the contrary emerged, and now two Democratic senators are exploring whether Kennedy lied to Congress.

But as it turns out, those same two Democratic senators — Ron Wyden of Oregon and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland — are also interested in a different Kennedy controversy.

In addition to the Samoa matter, Wyden, who’s expected to soon lead the Senate Finance Committee, and Alsobrooks launched a parallel inquiry into the rather luxurious gifts and trips he received from a campaign donor. From a letter the senators sent to the Cabinet secretary on Wednesday:

We write to seek clarification regarding your compliance with federal ethics rules. Your spokesperson claims that you “compl[y]with all applicable federal ethics laws, regulations and financial disclosure requirements,” but such a blanket assertion seems impossible to square with the facts. […]

We already know that you have a history of playing fast and loose with ethics rules. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that you’ve been improperly accepting lavish gifts, ducking and dodging federal ethics rules throughout your tenure as Secretary.

The Democrats’ letter was sent the same day as The Wall Street Journal reported that last summer Kennedy spent about a week sailing the Greek islands on a 151-foot yacht owned by one of his former campaign donors, reputed billionaire Gavin de Becker — a trip that didn’t appear on the secretary’s ethics disclosure.

An HHS spokesperson told the Journal that Kennedy complied with federal ethics disclosure rules and that “his financial disclosure report was reviewed and certified by agency ethics officials.”

Perhaps, though, the yacht trip wasn’t the only relevant data point: The Wall Street Journal also reported a couple of months ago that Kennedy received more than $250,000 worth of free flights, as well as use of a vacation home, thanks to the same former campaign donor.

For his part, de Becker told the Journal that the two men and their families had vacationed together for years before Kennedy became health secretary, and said their relationship was unconnected to his government work.

“As a parent and a criminologist, my books on big pharma misconduct go back long before Bobby Kennedy Jr was working for the federal government,” he said. “I have an interest in medical freedom and health, but I have no interest in HHS.”

Evidently, Wyden and Alsobrooks are exploring the matter anyway, hoping to get some more definitive answers. Watch this space.

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