By Nate Raymond (NSE:RYMD)
(Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Friday dropped charges against a Texas doctor and self-described whistleblower on transgender care for minors, who was accused of illegally gaining access to records about patients not under his care at Texas Children's Hospital.
Just days after Republican President Donald Trump returned to office on Monday, federal prosecutors in Houston moved to dismiss the case they brought in June against Dr. Eithan Haim, whose prosecution had been sharply criticized by conservatives.
Haim, who made several appearances on Fox News following his indictment, had been slated to face trial on Feb. 10 on charges that he violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a federal patient privacy law.
Ryan Patrick, Haim's attorney, called the prosecution's legal theory "novel." He said prosecutors agreed to dismiss the case following the Sunday resignation of U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden.
"They made what we believe is the right decision," Patrick said.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Since taking office, Trump's administration has moved quickly to roll back policies put in place by the Biden administration, which defended LGBTQ rights and opposed Republican-backed state restrictions on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.
Trump on Monday signed an executive order declaring that the government would recognize only two sexes, male and female, that are unchangeable.
Haim, a Dallas surgeon, had as part of his residency worked occasionally at Texas Children's Hospital, one of the nation's largest children's hospitals.
Prosecutors said that in 2023, he asked to reactivate his login credentials in order to access medical files of children not under his care. After gaining access, he leaked private medical records of children to the media, prosecutors said.
Haim has described himself as a whistleblower who was seeking to expose the hospital's transgender care program.
After Trump took office, Haim in a social media post on X on Wednesday argued that with Biden out of office, the case against him should be dropped, calling it a "textbook weaponization against the Biden regime's political enemies."