RFK Jr.'s ethics disclosure reveals free travel and hefty book advances

+ Politics RFK Jr.'s ethics disclosure reveals free travel and hefty book advances September 22, 20264:46 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered By Sydney Lupkin RFK Jr.'s ethics disclosure reveals free travel and hefty book advances.

+ Listen &middot; 3:46 3:46 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5974931/nx-s1-9936196" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript Health Secretary Robert F.

+ Sponsor Message Transcript SCOTT DETROW, HOST: NPR has gotten a look at Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s latest annual financial disclosure. Disclosures are required of high-ranking federal officials to guard against conflicts of interest. NPR pharmaceuticals correspondent Sydney Lupkin is here to tell us what she's learned. Hey, Sydney.

+ SYDNEY LUPKIN, BYLINE: Hey. DETROW: What caught your eye in these filings? LUPKIN: Yeah, the biggest items were two book advances Kennedy received in the last year - $2 million apiece from Skyhorse Publishing. One of the books will be called "Unsettled Science." The title is a twist on the term settled science, often used to describe the evidence for vaccine safety. And that's interesting given Kennedy's current job as head of the agency charged with regulating vaccines. DETROW: Right, and, of course, we have seen some efforts to change vaccine policies. Is there anything else in the filings that you think is worth reporting? LUPKIN: Yeah, Kennedy also received free flights to and from Fiji and Greece and the use of a vacation home. Their value totaled more than a quarter of a million dollars. Those were from Gavin de Becker, a celebrity security adviser. De Becker also wrote a book published by Skyhorse Publishing called "Forbidden Facts." It alleges government suppression of information about brain damage from childhood vaccines. De Becker says they've been friends for a long time and he has nothing to do with HHS. DETROW: Help me understand how much of this is unusual. I mean, a lot of politicians get book deals - right? - have outside income or one way or another. There's a lot of wealthy people in the administration. What do you make of this? LUPKIN: Yeah, so they're not typical, according to Virginia Canter at Democracy Defenders Fund, which is a nonprofit that's focused on fighting corruption and protecting elections. VIRGINIA CANTER: Those are large amounts of money for a government's public servant to receive while he is, you know, in office. LUPKIN: In fact, the gifts are so large that she has questions about whether, you know, this is a supplementation of salary, something that's prohibited. She said Kennedy may have wealthy friends who treat him, but what's OK when you're in the private sector is different when you become a public servant. The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to NPR's detailed list of questions about the disclosures but says Kennedy complies with all laws, regulations and requirements. DETROW: Those book advance numbers are pretty large, aren't they? LUPKIN: Yeah, $2 million per book is a lot when you consider that the salary for being health secretary is around $250,000. And Canter tells me the timing of the book advances is noteworthy considering rules against outside income. If you're a public servant of Kennedy's rank, you aren't allowed to do any book writing, including taking notes, and getting paid for it during your time in office. Enforcing that is tricky, though. Kennedy also isn't supposed to promote his previous Skyhorse Publishing work, according to his ethics agreement, but he posted on X about his 2021 book, "The Real Anthony Fauci," over the summer during the Fauci hearings in Congress. DETROW: A few weeks ago you were on the show and you talked about Kennedy's role in a possible payout in a lawsuit against a vaccine maker. Did this disclosure clear that up at all? LUPKIN: It did not. There was a small payment - $7,000 - from the law firm Wisner Baum. It was listed by Kennedy as compensation for terminating an agreement about contingency fees. Before he was nominated, Kennedy consulted for the law firm, which sued Merck over its Gardasil vaccine. The litigation was settled over the summer. But Wisner Baum tells me the payment wasn't related to the Gardasil case. For context, Kennedy was initially going to take his 10% cut of the contingency fees from cases he referred to the firm, according to his original ethics agreement. But after senators balked at that during the confirmation process, an updated agreement said he would give his cut to a family member. Wisner Baum says neither Kennedy nor his family got any of the Gardasil settlement money. DETROW: That was NPR pharmaceuticals correspondent Sydney Lupkin. Thank you so much. LUPKIN: You bet. Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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