Eithan Haim’s two-year effort to clear himself of charges that he violated the medical privacy of children by exposing gender transition procedures that were being performed at Texas Children’s Hospital is over. The Trump Department of Justice dismissed the charges filed against him “with prejudice.” This means that the charges cannot be refiled.
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Haim’s ordeal began in March 2022, when the Texas Children’s Hospital announced that they would no longer authorize “gender-affirming care” on minors. But Haim and several other residents noticed immediately that this was a lie. The hospital continued to operate on kids as young as 11, inserting implantable puberty blockers.
Christopher Rufo of City Journal originally broke the story. Haim had given Rufo copies of heavily redacted medical records of children showing the gender-affirming treatments that the hospital said it was not performing. Fearing repercussions, Haim had given Rufo the documents anonymously.
The story was a sensation, and put the hospital on the defensive. The Texas legislature passed a law banning “gender-affirming care” for minors.
In June 2023, when Haim was to graduate from his residency at Texas Children’s Hospital, federal agents came to his house and informed him that forensics had identified him as the likely leaker. Shortly thereafter, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tina Ansari began threatening Haim with prosecution.
Ansari followed through on that threat shortly thereafter by filing four charges of violating the HIPPA Act (that is, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). Haim was looking at ten years in prison.
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But the DoJ’s case was shaky. They had to refile several times to correct errors, and the prosecutor Ansari was replaced when it was discovered that she had relatives working for Texas Children’s Hospital.
It’s clear that even if Haims wasn’t convicted — all identifying information in the documents Haim gave to Rufo was removed — the harassment was taking a huge toll. He lost friends and drained his savings, and the stress on his wife, who had just given birth to their first child, was enormous.
At around 2:30 p.m. on Friday, Haim received notice that the Trump DOJ issued a dismissal of all charges against him, with prejudice—meaning the charges cannot be refiled. In a conversation with The Free Press, while he and his wife were celebrating over champagne, he said, “We didn’t think it was going to happen. We took on the federal leviathan and we won.” He added, “This is epic. This is like Lord of the Rings.”
Although Haim had raised more than $1.2 million in a GiveSendGo account, mounting a case to stay out of federal prison has cost $2 million. “We’ll be paying legal bills for 20 years,” he said.
Haim’s wife Andrea told The Free Press, “I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a year without worrying my husband would be in prison and I would be raising our daughter alone. We are now going back to normal life.”
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“Eithan Haim was the only person with the courage to stand up for what was right. For him, it wasn’t even a decision. Kids were being harmed, and he had to stop it,” Andrea said in a statement on X.
🎉CASE AGAINST DR. EITHAN HAIM DISMISSED!
When this case started a year and a half ago, Texas Children’s Hospital was mutilating and sterilizing young children while hiding it from the public.Literally hundreds of people knew it was happening. Some even thought it was wrong,… pic.twitter.com/rpDZXb0MP5
— Andrea Haim (@AndreaCohenHaim) January 24, 2025
Haim noted, “I was facing a kangaroo court in a few weeks.” That’s the long and short of it.
His ordeal is over. How close he came to disaster is a question many of us should be asking after Biden lost.
