The Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued a criminal subpoena to New York University Langone Health (NYU) for its role in providing trans healthcare to minors. The subpoena, released by NYU earlier today, requires the hospital to hand over identifying information about the patients being treated and the doctors treating them between 2020 and 2026, among other pieces of personal information.
This subpoena is part of a broader criminal investigation into trans healthcare providers. While the specifics of the investigation are sealed, and therefore unavailable to the public, the surrounding paper trail makes clear that it is a criminal investigation of some nature. As for now, we do not know what charges the DOJ is even considering, and it is unclear what charges would even be possible to press.
In it, the DOJ claims that it is demanding such information as part of “its capacity as a health oversight agency, and this information is necessary to further health oversight activities.” This is notable, as the department has no jurisdiction over health oversight. That is normally the domain of agencies such as Health and Human Services, which actually deal with health. The Special Agent whose name is listed in the Subpoena (Bradley Cooper) lists a government email associated with the Food and Drug Administration, not the DOJ. This is unusual, to say the least.
The DOJ has demanded similar records from Rhode Island Hospital as part of the same investigation. The same was done to an unknown number of other hospitals, according to a statement by NYU.
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The request is near total in its demand for potentially relevant documents. Assuming a given document is relevant to trans care, the DOJ requires that NYU hand over patient lists, doctor and clinician lists, details on procedures offered, insurance billing records, internal emails, communications with drug manufacturers, among a host of other requirements.
What is most concerning here is the demand for identifying documents for all patients. Quoting from the subpoena, it demands the following:
12. Documents sufficient to identify each patient who underwent Sex-Rejecting Procedures.
13. For each such patient identified in Subpoena specification 12, supra, documents relating to the clinical indications, diagnoses, or assessments that formed the basis for providing Sex-Rejecting Procedures, including the prescribing of puberty blockers or hormones, and all documents relating to the Sex-Rejecting Procedures care provided to each patient identified in Subpoena specification 12 from initial consultation to the most recent treatment provided.
Editor’s Note: ‘Sex-Rejecting Procedures’ is their euphemism for trans healthcare.
This is nothing less than a demand for the total medical history of a patient as it pertains to trans healthcare.
Such information, when stripped of any anonymity, has no value for an investigation which could not be filled by anonymized data.
This is why, in a previous investigation from last year into over 20 trans youth healthcare providers, the DOJ allowed information on individual patients to be anonymized before being handed over as part of settlements in various court cases.
This makes it all the more notable that the DOJ is insisting that collecting de-anonymized data has always been part of its standard operation procedure. When obtaining this subpoena, the DOJ’s lawyer allegedly committed perjury by lying under oath, stating that collecting de-anonymized data (such as that which it requests from NYU) has always been standard. This is false, as
The DOJ has given no clear justification as to why it is asking for identifying data on patients.
New York State law stipulates that when forced to hand over a patient's medical information, hospitals must notify patients (or their legal guardians) at least 30 days before doing so. This means that NYU cannot legally hand over this information until at least June 10.
This is the same date in which a representative from NYU is commanded to appear before a grand jury and hand over all requested documents.
A public statement from NYU states that it is still “evaluating [its] response to the subpoena”.
It is notable that the investigation into this New York Hospital is being conducted from the Kansas City Field Office, and the Judge who issued the subpoena is based in Texas. This is an example of judge-shopping, whereby agencies looking for a favorable ruling will seek out judges which are more favorable to their cause. This is often a sign that the proceedings will be contentious, and that the plaintiffs would prefer a judge who is sympathetic to them.
This all comes alongside a wider campaign by the federal administration, alongside right-wing state governments such as Tennessee and Kansas, to assemble lists of trans people. This goal, which various governments have been working towards for years, has gone largely unacknowledged, even as their efforts ramp up.
Historically, governments collected lists of hated minorities has never led to good outcomes.
You can read the full subpoena below: