Despite a federal judge’s caution not to say anything that could sway a jury, a Dallas physician who is awaiting trial on allegations that he broke patient privacy rules by disclosing transgender care at Texas Children’s Hospital publicly chastised the prosecution on social media on Wednesday.
Eithan Haim stated he could no longer remain silent in a retweet of his wife’s X post. He promised not to submit to their corruption, denounced the accusations as complete fabrications, and said he was being singled out as part of a scheme to defend a malevolent philosophy.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner is expected to take notice of Haim’s reference to the court where he will stand trial next month as a “kangaroo court.” Hittner, who was appointed to the federal bench in Houston by President Reagan in 1986, cautioned Haimin December against saying anything that would harm the case.
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Following the presentation of tweets by Haim and his lawyer, Marcella Burke, by prosecutors who claimed that the posts would compromise the jury selection process, the warning was issued. The case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tyler White, Lauretta Bahry, and Jessica Feinstein.
Hittner declined to issue a gag order at the end of the nearly two-hour hearing in December, but he made it clear that he would not think twice about it if the same behavior persisted.
I will let the lawyers handle it. Just like the last time, one shot. “You know what the cases say,” Hittner said, adding that he had never issued a gag order in his more than 40 years of judicial experience.
Haim, a former employee of Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, is set to go on trial for allegedly obtaining and disclosing to a conservative activist the private information of minors who were not in his care. Haim, currently free on a $10,000 bond, could be fined up to $250,000 and imprisoned for up to ten years.
Haim is being represented by Burke and Ryan Patrick, a former Southern District of Texas U.S. attorney, judge, and state prosecutor. A request for comment was not immediately answered.
From 2018 to 2023, he worked at Texas Children’s Hospital, the nation’s biggest pediatric hospital, while completing his residency at Baylor College of Medicine. The accusation against Haim claims that at one point during the residency, he obtained the personal data of patients who were not under his care, including their names, treatment codes, dates of service, and attending physicians.
After that, Haim gave some of the information to Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist, who wrote an essay about it in May 2023. Despite earlier promises to cease, the hospital allegedly kept giving cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to children, according to the story.
The Texas Legislature enacted a law prohibiting transgender adolescents from receiving hormone treatments and puberty blockers shortly after the report was published. Although Haim has admitted to giving Rufo access to the information, he maintains that he did not violate any laws because the records were blacked.
Haim has presented himself as a victim of government political persecution since he was charged in May with four charges of improper publication of personally identifiable health information. Texas Republicans, such as U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and U.S. Representatives Chip Roy and Dan Crenshaw, have taken an interest in his position. More than $1.2 million has been raised by supporters to pay for his defense.
As she awaited a resignation notice from the Trump administration, Haim’s wife attacked Jennifer Lowery in a tweet on Wednesday. Lowery was appointed interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas following the departure of Alamdar Hamdani.
After posting a photo of Lowery, Andrea Haim, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, claimed that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Texas Southern District was breaking a recent executive order by continuing to pursue her husband’s case.
Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government is the title of the order, which directs the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to look into the previous administration’s actions for any political bias and to report back on their findings.
In addition to refusing to withdraw the case, they have accelerated their prosecution in the days leading up to the February 10 trial. In her post, which by Thursday morning had received over 1.3 million views and almost 6,000 retweets, Andrea Haim stated, “They are trying to bleed us dry, and make no mistake, they will try to take him to trial and put him in prison for 10 years if they aren’t stopped.” In contrast, Haim’s retweet was getting close to one million views.
A representative from the Texas Southern District U.S. Attorney’s Office chose not to comment.
Eithan Haim’s trial is set for February 10 and there is no sign from his recent retweet that he is thinking about accepting a plea bargain with the prosecution.
Therefore, we will fight right now, Haim wrote. In the public square, we will engage in combat. We’re going to battle in court. In Congress, we will fight. No matter the cost, we will fight.
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