Democrats investigate RFK Jr, donor over expensive gifts

Two Democratic senators launched a probe into Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week after financial reports revealed he received over $250,000 in gifts last year from a former donor to his presidential campaign. 

In a letter addressed to the HHS secretary on Tuesday, Sens. Angela Alsobrooks (Md.) and Robert Wyden (Ore.) requested Kennedy provide more information about these gifts. 

The Trump official reported the gifts from security consultant Gavin de Becker in his annual financial disclosure, including a $126,000 value for lodging at the donor’s Washington, D.C., home, $97,000 in flights to Fiji and $45,000 in flights to Greece. 

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on these gifts in September. 

Alsobrooks and Wyden noted in their letter to the secretary that federal ethics rules prohibit federal officials from accepting gifts from a “prohibited source.” 

Prohibited sources are defined as people who “conducts activities regulated by the employee’s agency” or “has interests that may be substantially affected” by the employee’s official duties. 

The lawmakers noted that de Becker has been a leading advocate for antivaccine causes and ketamine therapy. 

“Mr. de Becker absolutely has vested interests in the outcome of decisions you make as Secretary,” they wrote. “As such, he is a prohibited source from whom you cannot lawfully accept gifts.”

Wyden is currently the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee and is expected to take over the panel when Democrats gain power in the legislature next year. 

De Becker, who provided security services to Kennedy and was a major contributor to his 2024 campaign, called the secretary his “closest friend in the world for many years” in a statement to The Wall Street Journal in September. 

The senators also sent a separate letter to the security consultant on Tuesday, inquiring more details about his payments to Kennedy. 

“Even if you consider Secretary Kennedy a friend, your relationship is not purely personal,” they wrote to de Becker, saying he had “vested interests in the outcome of decisions” made by the secretary.