Judge dismisses charges against doctor accused of leaking child health care records

HOUSTON (CN) — Just weeks before a scheduled trial, a federal judge has dismissed charges against a Texas doctor accused of leaking children’s patient health information.

Prosecutors in June 2024 charged Dr. Eithan Haim, a 34-year-old surgeon, with four counts of violating U.S. health privacy law for improperly accessing patient records at Texas Children’s Hospital. They say he leaked partially redacted copies of them to a conservative activist, unnamed in the indictment but identified by The Texas Tribune as Christopher Rufo.

Following a request from an acting U.S. attorney, filed jointly with Haim’s legal team on Friday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge David Hittner, a Ronald Reagan appointee, agreed to dismiss with prejudice all charges against Haim. He had faced up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 if found guilty.

“On or about April 24, 2023,” prosecutors said in the indictment, “Haim’s login activity showed that Haim began accessing pediatric patient files at [Texas Children’s Hospital] that were not under his care. Haim obtained personal information including patient names, treatment codes, dates of service and attending physician from TCH’s electronic system without authorization and under the false pretenses that he needed the access for the provision of medical services to patients under his care.”

Prosecutors said Haim then released the records to a media figure listed only as “Person1.” Haim admitted to releasing the information to Rufo at the time of the initial indictment, calling himself a whistleblower. He nonetheless pleaded not guilty to the charge of violating patient privacy.

Rufo’s reporting attacked Texas Children’s Hospital for providing gender-affirming care to minors. He described Haim as a whistleblower for revealing information on the hospital’s care.

Afterwards and against the advice of the American Medical Association, Texas and other Republican-led states passed bills barring transgender minors from accessing gender-affirming care. Texas Children’s Hospital also publicly said it would discontinue its gender-affirming care program following the passage of the Texas law.

As the new Trump administration begins to announce and implement its policies, the Department of Justice’s request for dismissal follows a broader shift on transgender people and gender-affirming care.

The Biden administration made efforts to include transgender people in existing antidiscrimination protections, including in health care and education. Among other methods, they used the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County to expand existing provisions against sex discrimination to cover gender and sexual orientation. Republican-led states repeatedly sued the administration to block those measures.

In contrast, the second Trump administration has shown hostility towards transgender people, including in one of the president’s day-one executive orders, which denounced “gender ideology” and emphasized “the biological reality of sex.” In an analysis of that order, transgender journalist Erin Reed described it as “a comprehensive directive aimed squarely at dismantling legal and social recognition of transgender people across the United States."

Throughout the case, Haim has maintained ties to prominent conservatives and remained vocal on social media. Haim’s lead defense attorney, Ryan Patrick, served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas during the previous Trump administration and is the son of Dan Patrick, the Texas Republican lieutenant governor.

“Dr. Haim and the rest of the legal team are thrilled with today’s outcome," Ryan Patrick said in a statement to Courthouse News on Friday. “For eight months we have been making our legal and factual arguments to the court and the US Attorney’s office and today the criminal chief in the Southern District of Texas made the decision to dismiss the case. That speaks volumes about how the career staff evaluated this case.”

The U.S. attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.