Lawyers for the Texas transgender care whistleblower argue that unsealed court documents prove the DOJ lacked evidence for their case.

Court documents reveal that the DOJ had information disproving HIPAA violations in the transgender whistleblower case from the beginning, according to lawyers and a review of the documents by Planet Chronicle Digital.

The ongoing criminal case against Dr. Eithan Haim, brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), stems from his leak of documents to the media revealing that Texas Children's Hospital (TCH) in Houston continued performing transgender medical procedures on minors until May 2023, despite the hospital's announcement in 2021 that it had stopped providing sex-change surgeries and puberty blockers.

On December 6, Planet Chronicle Digital reviewed court-unsealed documents, while denying Haim's lawyers' motion to dismiss the case. The trial is now scheduled for mid-February.

According to Haim's lawyers, the DOJ's original claim that Haim did not provide care to TCH patients after 2021 was used to justify its assertion that Haim had no reason to access patient records. However, unsealed documents prove this claim to be false.

Due to a de facto gag order imposed by the court, Haim's wife, Andrea, spoke with Planet Chronicle Digital about the case instead of her husband.

""The government either knew or should have known that the allegations against Eithan were false, as shown in the first and third indictments," she stated."

"This revelation is vindicating because it confirms what we've known all along, which is that this is a weaponized prosecution intended to silence not just Eithan, but other whistleblowers who went against the narrative on transgender interventions on minors," she said. "I have no doubt that they were looking for a crime to indict Eithan on. The failure of their multiple indictments shows how weak their basis was from the beginning."

TCH admitted in correspondence to the Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights that Haim was taking care of TCH patients as part of his residency beyond the January 2021 deadline and until June 2023, as shown in the schedule of rotations.

"The original indictment was based on false accusations that, in other circumstances, would be considered defamatory," his lawyers stated. "It depicted Dr. Haim as an outsider with no affiliation with TCH after January 2021. The false pretenses charges were founded on his falsely assuming responsibility for non-existent TCH patients in order to obtain access to TCH records."

On April 14, 2023, Dr. Haim requested access to the electronic medical records (EMR) at TCH's Pavilion for Women in preparation for a surgery he was scheduled to perform that day, as per his lawyers and court documents reviewed by Planet Chronicle Digital.

Haim, who is assigned to any of the Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center (BSLMC) general surgery rotations, may also treat patients at TCH's Pavilion for Women as the BCM BSLMC general surgery faculty also provide coverage at TCH's Pavilion for Women, according to TCH's letter to HHS.

Dr. Haim's lawyers stated that a TCH administrator confirmed that he might see adult patients and visited her office on April 14, 2023, to request access to the EMR system. However, they emphasized that this material does not support the allegation that when he requested access, it was a lie or that he obtained access by false pretenses.

"The government should have recognized that the central accusations were untrue. Its own evidence, which it presented to the defense during discovery, contradicted them. This was evident from TCH's own records, which showed that Dr. Haim continued to treat TCH patients until April 2023 and that he provided care to TCH patients beyond January 2021."

Despite not reviewing the evidence or learning the facts, the government attorneys proceeded with the most serious charges they could find.

In August 2023, TCH informed HHS that Dr. Haim had been granted permission to access TCH's electronic medical records (EMR), despite the DOJ charging Haim with HIPAA violations 10 months later.

"The government had the information about Eithan's lack of authorization before indicting him, which contradicts what Texas Children's told HHS," said Andrea. "This is a shocking and malicious act."

In April 2024, the DOJ interviewed TCH Chief of Surgery Larry Hollier, who admitted during the interview that he could not recall any incident during his tenure at TCH where a resident was called to provide backup care services to an adult patient at TCH.

"Andrea believes that the witness statement contains a lot of inaccuracies. The witness may have been aware or unaware of the residency program's workings. However, if the government is basing their indictment of Eithan on this, it suggests the strength of their case is weak. As a result, Eithan's counsel included it in their motion on the grand jury materials, raising questions about the true basis of the government's case on a factual level."

Haim's legal team contends that Hollier's testimony was inaccurate and asserts that once the government became aware of Hollier's involvement in multiple backup care surgeries, it could no longer rely on his testimony.

"Dr. Haim treated many patients at TCH while on rotations at other hospitals, according to TCH's representations to HHS OCR. However, Haim's lawyers argued in court filings that these representations were false when the government first indicted Dr. Haim, and the government should have known it."

The government cannot use the testimony that Dr. Haim's access requests were based on false pretenses because the foundation of that testimony, that he never had adult patients at TCH, was false.

According to the DOJ, Haim unauthorizedly obtained personal information such as patient names, treatment codes, dates of service, and attending physicians from TCH's electronic system, claiming it was necessary for providing medical services to his patients. This information was obtained through the use of false pretenses, as stated in the first and second superseding indictments.

The DOJ made changes to its language in the indictment between May 29 and October 10, removing any reference to HIPAA-protected information and altering the victims of harm caused by Haim's actions from TCH's physicians and patients to TCH and its physicians.

"Haim's lawyers stated that the government has admitted to negligently providing false information to the grand jury. The government was forced to remove false allegations from the superseding indictment, which weakened their case and left no explanation for the false pretenses charge. Additionally, the government was forced to drop other salacious allegations, including that Haim intended to harm child patients for his own personal agenda."

The prosecutor handling the Haim case has been removed from it due to a conflict of interest involving her family's ties to the hospital system, as reported by Planet Chronicle Digital.

In a letter dated Nov. 13, 2024, Haim's lawyers informed the DOJ of a conflict of interest that they discovered, stating that "Tina Ansari's family members have significant financial and political ties to third parties in this case, Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, who may be victims and witnesses in the criminal prosecution of Dr. Haim."

Planet Chronicle Digital reached out to the DOJ for comment.