Former Trump HHS official tapped to be RFK Jr's chief of staff: report
President-elect Donald Trump's transition team tapped a former senior health official from Trump's first administration and an ally to top Trump loyalist, Harmeet Dhillon, to be Health and Human Services Secretary-nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s chief of staff, a new report indicated Monday.
Heather Flick, a lawyer who previously served in multiple top roles at the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department during the first Trump administration, has been working closely with Kennedy over the last few weeks as an informal chief of staff, according to Politico. The outlet added Monday that she had been tapped by Trump's transition team to fill the role permanently, according to four sources familiar. The announcement has yet to be made public.
Meanwhile, the law firm that currently employs Flick, as well as its founder, congratulated her on the new position this week on their social media accounts. Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump-Vance transition team for confirmation but did not hear back in time for publication.
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Flick's selection to work in Trump's second administration is just the latest pick among a list of Trump loyalists who have been given jobs in the administration during his second term. When Flick first joined the Trump administration, she was HHS' acting general counsel before becoming its acting secretary for administration and then eventually a senior adviser to then-HHS Secretary Alex Azar.
Before joining HHS the first time, Flick was an attorney at Dhillon Law Group, a firm founded by Dhillon, who Trump has tapped this time around to be his assistant attorney general.
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Dhillon has represented clients in big conservative civil rights cases and defended Trump supporters in court. During the pandemic, she challenged Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom's stay-at-home orders, and in 2020, she served as the co-chairwoman of Lawyers For Trump, a conservative group of lawyers supporting Trump throughout the 2020 election. Most recently, Dhillon helped lead Trump's election integrity team in Arizona during the 2024 election.
"Heather Flick is outstanding and will most definitely help soon to be Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.," former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn said in a post on X after news of Flick's new role.
Flick's appointment comes amid rumblings from some of Kennedy's allies that he could advance an agenda that is not completely in line with the Trump world, but rather more centered around Kennedy's priorities, Politico reported.
The potential HHS secretary has been taking meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill recently in an attempt to shore up support. Democrats and Republicans have both been very critical of the HHS secretary-nominee's opinions about vaccines, while Republicans have also been probing Kennedy during meetings about his past pro-choice views on abortion.
Critics of Kennedy have questioned his ability to handle major crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and posited that Kennedy pushes conspiracy theories about things like vaccines and antidepressants. Meanwhile, business leaders have suggested there is reason to worry as well, on account of past claims Kennedy has made about the dangers of food additives, pesticides and vaccines.
Flick will be tasked with helping Kennedy clean up some of those criticisms. One former Food and Drug Administration Official, granted anonymity to speak openly, told Politico that depending upon how involved HHS Secretaries are in the agency's work, their chief of staff can end up being "very, very involved."
"On really high-profile things, if she’s an effective chief of staff, she could be super involved," the former official added. "I certainly saw that happen across multiple administrations."