‘Torture just continues’: Doctor headed to trial for exposing child sex-change procedures urges Trump DOJ to drop case

A doctor who exposed secret child transgender procedures at the nation’s largest children’s hospital hopes President Donald Trump will stop the Department of Justice (DOJ) from taking him to trial in February.

Dr. Eithan Haim told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the DOJ will be “in direct contravention” of the White House if it continues to prosecute him for blowing the whistle on Texas Children’s Hospital’s sex change program in May 2023. The DOJ claims he broke privacy law by releasing records about transgender procedures to the media, bringing a felony case that has led to nationwide scrutiny, months of procedural hangups and the dismissal of a leading prosecutor.

“My message [to Trump] would be, ‘This case needs to be dropped with prejudice immediately. The people who brought this case need to be investigated,’” Haim said in a phone interview. Otherwise, “an insane legal theory will be legitimized which will destroy the medical profession,” the Houston-based surgeon said.

Haim leaked documents while he worked at Texas Children’s Hospital to journalist Chris Rufo, showing that the facility was signing children up for transgender surgery and cross-sex hormones after telling the public it had stopped. Texas Republicans have since banned transgender procedures for minors.

Former President Joe Biden’s DOJ indicted Haim in May 2024 under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, alleging he illegally disclosed the private information of children getting sex change appointments. The DOJ admitted in its indictment that Haim redacted children’s names before giving the files to Rufo. However, it accuses Haim of “malicious intent” against the hospital and “unauthorized” use of the data, which he accessed as an employee.

Haim faces up to ten years in prison and possible fines if convicted.

“What they’re charging me with … has not been defined,” Haim told the DCNF. He said his case could set a precedent that would “allow prosecutors to criminalize any doctor who, you know, runs against the political interests of major hospital systems.”

The prosecutor who brought the indictment, Tina Ansari, withdrew from the case in November after Haim’s lawyers revealed that she had a suspended law license and family members with ties to Texas Children’s Hospital.

A Texas court set Haim’s jury trial for Feb. 10 after it was delayed, and gave the DOJ until Friday to submit details on its planned witnesses.

The agency’s office in the Southern District of Texas did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The DCNF then contacted the DOJ Public Affairs Office and did not immediately receive a response.

Trump signed an executive order on Monday to end “the weaponization of the Federal Government” by the DOJ and other agencies against the last administration’s “political opponents.” The White House’s press office did not immediately respond to an inquiry about whether Trump plans to address Haim’s case.

Prosecutors requested a gag order against Haim, but Reagan-appointed Judge David Hittner refused to rule on the demand in December. Haim said that legal ambiguity threatened him into silence, stopping him from publicly criticizing the case. Now, he says he could not handle staying quiet.

“What that feels like is being tortured in a basement and you try to scream as loud as possible and no one hears you, right?” he said. “And no matter how much you scream, the torture just continues.”

Haim, a husband and father of one, said he is “not confident at all” the judge would give him a fair trial and he “would like to not pay legal bills for the rest of my life.”

“What they want to do is bleed us dry in order to get me to plead to some bullshit fucking agreement, which I’m definitely not going to do,” Haim told the DCNF. “If they get me to do that, all of this goes away and it legitimizes their corruption.”

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