Less than two weeks before the Dallas surgeon was scheduled to go on trial for allegedly breaking patient privacy laws by disclosing information about transgender care at Texas Children’s Hospital to a conservative activist, federal prosecutors in Houston dropped their criminal case against Eithan Haim on Friday.
Prosecutors did not explain their choice in court documents, and a U.S. Attorney’s Office representative did not reply to a request for comment.
Haim was exonerated of four charges of wrongful disclosure of personally identifiable health information on Friday when U.S. District Judge David Hittner signed a joint motion to dismiss. The case cannot be refiled because the counts were dismissed with prejudice.
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Two days after Haim and his wife resorted to social media to denounce what they consistently claimed was a politically motivated prosecution, the prosecutors decided to drop the case.
Jennifer Lowery, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, was also charged by Andrea Haim of breaking a recent executive order issued by the Trump administration, which directs the attorney general to pinpoint politically motivated acts by Biden administration officials. The husband and wife team’s public remarks were made in defiance of Hittner’s caution that they shouldn’t say anything that would sway the jury selection process.
Less than a week ago, Lowery took over as interim U.S. Attorney after Alamdar Hamdani signed the resignation. Since it is traditional for incoming presidents to appoint new U.S. Attorneys in all 93 districts, Hamdani resigned in anticipation of being asked to do so.
One of Haim’s attorneys, Ryan Patrick, stated, “I think it speaks volumes about what the career staff thought about this case.” Before being requested to step down in 2021 when Joe Biden was elected, Patrick, the son of Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, had been the U.S. Attorney for the Texas Southern District for three years.
Haim worked at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, the biggest pediatric hospital in the nation, as a resident at Baylor College of Medicine from 2018 to 2023. During his residency, Haim gained access to the confidential data of patients who were not under his care, and he shared some of that data with conservative activist Christopher Rufo.
In a May 2023 post, Rufo claimed that Texas Children’s Hospital had persisted in giving cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to children in spite of earlier promises to cease.
(The hospital previously stated that it temporarily ceased offering gender-affirming treatments after Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed the state’s child welfare department to look into allegations of abuse involving gender-affirming treatment for children. After confirming that it was in accordance with the law, it resumed delivering such services a few days later, the hospital stated in August.
Doctor accused of leaking trans patient data attacks prosecution on social media ahead of trial
by Staff Writer Monroe Trombley
Texas enacted legislation prohibiting transgender kids from receiving hormone treatments and puberty blockers shortly after Rufo published the essay. Although Haim acknowledged giving Rufo access to the patient’s information, he insisted that since the records were redacted, he did not violate the law.
Haim has identified himself as a whistleblower who exposed a deception at Texas Children’s Hospital. After Texas Republicans like U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and U.S. Reps. Chip Roy and Dan Crenshaw openly endorsed his cause, his narrative got a lot of attention in conservative circles.
Haim and his spouse praised the case’s rejection in a number of posts and retweets on X, the former name of Twitter. Federal prosecutor Andrea Haim of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Texas stated that they would have champagne and unwind on their balcony, just like they did when federal officers paid them a visit in June 2023.
She sent a picture of her husband and their small kid along with the message, “Today is for celebration, tomorrow is for accountability.”
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