‘TERMINATED’: DOJ Attorney Prosecuting Whistleblower Dr. Eithan Haim Has Been Removed From Case Over Conflicts of Interest

Tina Ansari is the federal prosecutor who has been leading the outrageous transgender crusade against whistleblower Dr. Eithan Haim. As Dr. Haim revealed in a tweet late this afternoon, Ansari’s role in the case has been “terminated.” I will here explain why.

In a November 13 letter, Dr. Haim’s lawyers informed the Department of Justice of “serious ethical questions” concerning Ansari’s prosecution of Dr. Haim—namely, that Ansari’s “close family members have substantial financial and political ties” to Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM). Ansari’s ties to TCH and BCM present significant conflicts of interest, as the indictment alleges that Dr. Haim, during his residency at BCM, obtained unauthorized access to TCH’s electronic patient records and caused malicious harm to TCH and its physicians. Pursuant to DOJ’s designation, the docket sheet identifies TCH and BCM each as an “Interested Party.”

Among other things, according to the letter:

Ansari’s family runs FreshBrew Group, one of the country’s largest private-label coffee and tea producers. FreshBrew Group’s customers include multiple hospitals in the Texas Medical Center where TCH and BCM are located. TCH and BCM are actual or potential customers. Ansari’s brother Ali Ansari is president and CEO of FreshBrew Group, and Ansari herself was formerly an executive of the company.

While the investigation of Haim was underway, Ali Ansari attended a VIP fundraiser for TCH. Since the time Haim was indicted, Ali Ansari has co-sponsored two TCH fundraisers, and FreshBrew has co-sponsored one of them. (Or maybe the first fundraiser occurred right before the indictment.)

There are further allegations in the letter, but there is no need to run through them, as events in the past two days confirm the serious conflict-of-interest concerns that Dr. Haim’s lawyers raised.

On November 20, DOJ filed under seal a motion to withdraw counsel from the case. That same day, DOJ filed a second superseding indictment in which, lo and behold, Ansari is no longer listed as counsel. On November 21, the federal district court granted DOJ’s motion to withdraw counsel. (The court’s order states that it is granting “Government’s Motion to Withdraw as Counsel of Record for the United States (Document No. 104),” and the docket sheet identifies Document No. 104 as “Sealed Event.”)

In brief, although DOJ’s filing under seal provides some cover, it sure seems that DOJ determined that Ansari has conflicts of interest that should have barred her from prosecuting Dr. Haim and that it therefore moved to withdraw her from the case.

Two months ago, I broke the news that Ansari had been suspended from the Texas bar for failure to pay dues but had nonetheless unlawfully continued to represent the government in its prosecution of Dr. Haim. The silver lining for Ansari in this far larger scandal is that disbarment would mean that she will never have to worry about paying bar dues again.