Dr. Eithan Haim, a Texas doctor who calls himself a whistleblower on transgender care for minors, told Newsmax Saturday that the Department of Justice is attempting to silence dissent over gender-transitioning surgeries.
Haim, who faces multiple counts of violations of the federal law restricting release of medical information, accused the DOJ of using intimidation tactics. He recounted an incident involving a Texas Children's Hospital nurse.
"They had gone to her home in July 2023 to interrogate her about a question they already knew the answer to because they were at my home in June," he said. "The intention is to intimidate people, to have people not speak up," Haim said on "America Right Now."
Haim is accused of illegally obtaining private information on patients who were not under his care from the nation's largest pediatric hospital.
Federal prosecutors said the 34-year-old surgeon took the information and shared it with an activist with "intent to cause malicious harm" to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston.
Haim pleaded not guilty on June 17 in federal court to four counts of wrongfully obtaining individually identifiable health information.
"It was amazing to me that the day after the indictment, this other whistleblower who is absolutely courageous ... revealed that they were allegedly defrauding Medicaid by using fake diagnoses," he said. "Hundreds, if not over a thousand, people knew that this was happening."
Haim, a Dallas surgeon, previously had done some work at Texas Children's Hospital as part of his residency. The indictment against Haim alleges that in 2023, he asked to reactivate his login there to access information on pediatric patients not under his care, including names, attending physicians, and treatment codes, then turned over the information to a media contact.
"The reason I found out was because the people who were doing these surgeries told me they were doing it. They were celebrating this behind closed doors," he said.
Haim has publicly identified himself as the person who gave the information about patients at Texas Children's to an activist who published a story that the hospital was providing transgender care for minors in secret. At the time, transgender care for minors was legal in Texas, but the hospital had announced in 2022 that it would stop would stop gender-transitioning therapies.
"The message is clear ... this is about protecting children. This is not evidence-based at all. It's anti-medicine," Haim said.
"My daughter is going to be born in October, my first child. There's no way I'm going to have her grow up thinking that her father was unwilling to fight for the right thing to do," he said.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, "This prosecution is just the latest example of how the [President Joe] Biden-Garland Justice Department is using the law to target ideological adversaries instead of equally enforcing the law. While Dr. Haim's bravery to come forward led Texas to enact bipartisan legislation banning 'transgender medical interventions' for minors, the Department of Justice chose to prosecute Dr. Haim."
Haim faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. He was released on $10,000 bond.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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