Prosecutor leads charge against whistleblower in transgender medicine Dr. Eithan Haim has been withdrawn from the case after information revealed a major conflict of interest regarding her family’s involvement in the hospital system.
Haim has been the subject of one ongoing criminal case filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) after leaking documents to the media showing that Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston performed transgender medical procedures on minors through May 2023, despite hospital leadership announcing it had stopped offering gender reassignment surgery and puberty blockers the year before.
Tina Ansari, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, has sued Haim that he violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which protects patients’ health information and gives them rights over their health records.
In a letter dated November 13, 2024, Haim’s attorneys notified the DOJ of what they said was an undisclosed conflict of interest: “Ms. Ansari’s immediate family members have substantial financial and political ties to third parties in this case, Texas Children’s Hospital ( TCH) and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), who may be victims and witnesses in Dr. Haim’s criminal prosecution.
Eithan Haim (Eithan Haim)
Ansari’s family owns the Houston-based company Fresh Brew, which provides commercial coffee and sales contracts to hospitals, restaurants, airlines and hotels, including American Airlines, Aramark, M. D. Anderson, Memorial Herman and Harris Health, which contracts with BCM and TCH. The Texas Secretary of State lists Ansari as a former director, but is now managed by “MTDA Investments, Inc.” and it is “likely” that Ansari “retains some financial interest in the company,” Haim’s lawyers claimed in their letter to the Justice Department. Ansari’s brother, Al Ansari, currently serves as president and CEO of Fresh Brew.
Haim’s counsel reminded the DOJ that the Supreme Court has found that “federal prosecutors are prohibited from representing the government in any matter in which they, their families, or their business associates have any interest,” according to a copy of the letter reviewed by Fox News digital.
On November 20, the DOJ filed under seal a motion to withdraw Ansari as counsel in the case. That same day, they filed a motion for a gag order that did not include Ansari’s signature. second superseding indictment in which she is no longer mentioned as counsel. Then, on November 21, federal district court promised DOJ’s Motion to Withdraw Counsel.
YOUTH TRANSURGERY WHISTLEBLOCKER COMES OUT AFTER ‘OBSERVING’ HIS SAVINGS TO BLOW FED PROBE
Haim was a resident at Baylor College of Medicine from June 2018 to June 2023 and worked at Texas Children’s Hospital during part of his residency. In one piece published in the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, Haim claimed that three days after announcing that medical procedures for transgender people had stopped, a surgeon implanted a hormone device in an 11-year-old girl who was experiencing gender dysphoria. Over the next year, Haim said multiple colleagues told him they were implanting puberty-blocking devices in transgender-identifying minors.
DOJ prosecutors alleged that Dr. Haim sent to journalist Chris Rufo were published with children’s names, but Haim’s lawyers claim all patient information has been redacted. In particular, HIPAA regulations allow the disclosure of protected information to stop serious medical misconduct. Haim said he and his wife have spent more than $200,000 fighting the DOJ.
Between the original May 29 indictment and the second indictment on October 10, the DOJ changed some of its language, removed any mention of “HIPAA-protected” information, and changed the victims of the alleged harm caused by Haim’s actions from “TCH’s doctors and patients”. to “TCH and its physicians.”
Haim told Fox News Digital that he believes Ansari abused her authority to exploit his vulnerability as a young surgeon, but added that now that she has withdrawn from the case, she and her “sycophantic accomplices may finally realize that they are at had knocked on the wrong address’.
Tina’s conflict card (Eithan Haim)
“After more than a year of disturbing behavior by Ms. Ansari, including pursuing Dr. Haim without a law license, it was finally a bridge too far when it was revealed that she had failed to disclose that her close family members have substantial financial and political ties to the hospitals involved in this case,” Marcella Burke, attorney for Eithan Haim, told Fox News Digital. “The Department of Justice owes the public and our client an explanation for why Ms. Ansari was dismissed from the case, the troubling conduct of this investigation and prosecution, and the federal government’s continued weaponization of Dr. Haim.”
Notably, in 2023, while the investigation into Haim was still ongoing, Al Ansari attended a TCH “VIP reception” fundraiser hosted by newly appointed TCH president and now CEO Dr. Debra Sukin, who is more than $400,000 for new TCH facilities. Ansari also co-sponsored two separate TCH fundraising events, including one in May 2024, which raised more than $1 million. Even if that was, together with his uncle and aunt, Masoud and Sima Ladjevardian listed as sponsor. Bee another benefit in September 2024which raised more than $400,000, Fresh Brew and Al Ansari were listed as sponsors.
DOJ charges Texas doctor after blowing the whistle on gender-affirming care for minors
Sima Ladjevardian is politically active in Houston and within the hospital system. In April 2022, she spoke at an event on April 13, 2022, where she presented a check for $1.1 million to BCM President and CEO Dr. Paul Klotman and Harris Health CEO Dr. Democratic Rep. Esmaeil Porsa Sylvia Garcia.
Ladjevardian is an attorney and former congressional candidate for U.S. House Texas District 2, who pushed policies to provide affordable access to health care for all. During her campaign challenging Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw, she was profiled by local LGBTQ magazine OutSmartin which she was described as a fundraiser for TCH and BCM and expressed her support for the Equality Act of 2019, which codified “gender identity” into civil rights law.
During the 2020 congressional run Ladjevardian raised more than $16,000 from BCM doctors and was endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign. After she lost the race against Crenshaw, President Biden appointed Ladjevardian to serve as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Regional Director for Region 6.
Since August 2023, Ladjevardian has been a member of the Harris Health Board of Trustees she serves alongside her for the Harris County Health System Afsheen DavisGeneral Counsel and Vice President of TCH, op the Quality Committeewhich oversees Harris Health’s research with affiliated academic institutions, including BCM, where Haim did his residency.
X Corp and the news channel, Not the bee, have both independently taken legal action, filing requests to intervene and unseal crucial documents in the case, which they claim have been sealed without apparent justification.
DOJ UNVEILS CHARGES AGAINST TEXAS DOCTOR WHO BLOWED WHISTLE ON GENDER AFFIRMING CARE FOR MINORS
Haim’s lawyers argue that “the government’s actions have had the dual purpose of suppressing criticism of the prosecution and silencing commentary on pediatric transgender procedures,” according to their response to the silence order.
Not The Bee and X both argued that the American public has a vested interest and right to know what the government is prosecuting.
“Stripped of its rhetoric, the government’s motion for an injunction to silence the public speech of defendant Eithan Haim and his counsel seeks to achieve one goal: to stifle public reaction to the use (or misuse) of the prosecutorial discretion in this action,” read the X-movement.
Haim told Fox News Digital that he has been dealing with the full power of the federal government for almost a year, which first wants to intimidate him into silence and then make him an example to other whistleblowers.
“Speaking out publicly and through my lawyers was my only defense. Now that I am in court, I am glad that I have the opportunity to also place this story in the court record,” he said. “I’m X Corp. and Not the Bee for supporting my right to speak out and the many others who helped me, including the countless members of the public who contributed to my defense. We will succeed in stopping the government from abusing whistleblowers and doctors by abusing children.”
Fox News Digital contacted Tina Ansari, Al Ansari and Sima Ladjevardian for comment.
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Fox News’ Brian Flood and Nate Foy contributed to this report.
