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Robert Kennedy vows to keep vaccine suit share if confirmed as Trump health chief

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Robert Kennedy vows to keep vaccine suit share if confirmed as Trump health chief

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Robert F Kennedy Jr says he will keep his share of any windfall from litigation against pharmaceutical company Merck even if he becomes Donald Trump’s top US health official, ethics records show.

In an ethics agreement published on Wednesday, Kennedy said he would keep his share of potential winnings from the case brought by law firm Wisner Baum against Merck’s Gardasil vaccine, which prevents human papillomavirus, known as HPV.

“I am entitled to receive 10 per cent of fees awarded in contingency fee cases referred to the firm,” said Kennedy, a co-counsel at Wisner Baum, in a letter to the top ethics tsar at the US Department of Health and Human Services.

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Kennedy, a vaccine sceptic who Trump picked to be health secretary in November, said he was entitled to keep interests in cases that did not involve the US or in which the state did not have a “direct and substantial interest”.

The ethics records were published on Wednesday as Mike Crapo, the chair of the Senate finance committee, announced that Kennedy’s confirmation hearings would be held next Wednesday.

Kennedy, a scion of the famous Democratic political family, stressed that he was playing no direct role in the Merck case and pledged to avoid doing anything to sway the outcome if appointed as health and human services secretary.

The first in a series of cases alleging that young people were injured by Merck’s vaccine is being heard this week in a court in Los Angeles. Kennedy first got involved with the legal effort against Gardasil in 2018.

The former Democrat, who endorsed Trump last year after mounting his own independent run for the White House, also said he would resign from his consulting role at Wisner Baum.

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In separate financial records filed on Wednesday with the US Office of Government Ethics, Kennedy revealed $11.6mn in disclosed income over the past two years, including $8.8mn from his work as an environmental attorney at Kennedy & Madonna. He pledged to terminate his role at the firm.

Kennedy was also paid $856,559 by Wisner Baum over the same period, records show. He also held small stakes in biotechs Crispr Therapeutics and Dragonfly Therapeutics, according to the financial disclosures.

The disclosures highlight the controversy around Trump’s decision to pick a vocal vaccine sceptic and campaigner to oversee the US health department — including its 13 divisions and agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health, which have sweeping influence over medicine regulation in the US.

The delay in Kennedy’s congressional hearing, which was originally planned for this week, has been taken by some in his camp as a sign that he could struggle to win approval from the crucial health and finance committees, whose endorsement he will need before a full vote in the Senate.

Some senators have raised questions about his record on vaccines and abortion, among other issues.

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The litigation against Merck over Gardasil is among several high-profile anti-vaccine lawsuits Kennedy has been involved in. Gardasil is recommended as a routine jab for 11- and 12-year-olds by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with 160mn having been distributed by the end of 2022, according to official statistics. Certain high-risk types of HPV can cause cervical cancer.

Kennedy did not respond to requests for comment. Merck said: “The plaintiff’s allegations have no merit, and we remain committed to vigorously defending against these claims.”

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Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

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Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

Donald Trump has terminated the remaining members of the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide just a few months before the midterm elections, multiple outlets reported Thursday.

The remaining three commissioners of the four-member bipartisan commission ⁠were forced out on Thursday in different ways. The one Republican appointee resigned and the other ⁠two, Democratic appointees were notified of their terminations via email from ​the White House presidential personnel office.

“On ‌behalf of President ‌Donald J Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position ‌as Commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the email, seen by Reuters, said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Election Assistance Commission serves as a “national clearinghouse of information on election ‌administration”, accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, and maintains the national mail-voter registration form developed by the National ​Voter Registration Act of 1993, according to the commission’s website. The terminations follow Trump and top administration officials’ advocacy to change vote-by-mail requirements and investigations into the 2020 election outcome, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

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“It is ⁠irresponsible and dangerous that this Administration remains dead set on ​causing chaos for ​our election officials across this ​country,” Arizona secretary of state Adrian Fontes said in a ​Thursday statement. “This ‌move undermines the integrity ​of nonpartisan ​election administration.”

The 2002 law that established the commission, the Help America Vote Act, states the president can appoint replacements to the commission.

It is unclear how Trump will move ahead with the commission.

Reuters contributed reporting

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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

Former U.S. Olympian David Hearn (left) walks with his attorney Norman Eisen to speak to reporters and protesters gathered after his arraignment at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

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Former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn pleaded not guilty to damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in D.C. Superior Court Thursday morning.

Federal prosecutors charged Hearn with a single count of destruction of property causing more than $1,000 in damage to the pool.

Hearn has previously claimed, which his attorneys repeated during a short press conference outside the court, that he simply touched the water in the pool out of curiosity.

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The Trump administration had just completed a $14 million renovation of the pool.

But shortly after the work finished, peeling paint and algae gathered in the water. The remodel has been largely criticized as a massive failure and waste of taxpayer dollars.

Superior Court Judge Carmen McLean released Hearn on his own recognizance. His next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 5.

Norm Eisen, one of Hearn’s attorneys, spoke to reporters outside of court following the hearing. He said the administration is using Hearn as a “scapegoat … for their own failures.”

“It is not a crime to touch the reflecting pool, to touch water in the United States of America,” he said.

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Prosecutors say there is a host of evidence against Hearn.

This is a developing story.

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

Three more people have been criminally charged with destruction of property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Officers say they detained Cameron Thiers, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Justin Carreno one Saturday afternoon in June and described in court documents witnessing them peeling and removing pieces of blue paint from the Reflecting Pool.

One officer “witnessed Carreno reach down into the reflecting pool and pull up a piece of the blue paint,” according to the court documents.

The officer who detained Dennison-Gibby “found 1 additional piece of the reflecting pool liner” in her purse, the documents said.

All three incidents were recorded on the officers’ body worn cameras, they said in the court documents.

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Several “partnering law enforcement agencies assigned to the Reflecting Pool” working with US Park Police were involved in detaining the two men and one woman — including officers from Texas, Oklahoma, Montana and California.

One of the officers said in court documents that Thiers “admitted to removing a piece of blue sealant from the Reflecting Pool and still had it in his hand when I made contact with him.”

The three defendants were arraigned in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges of destruction of property with a value less than $1,000. The judge ordered them to stay away from the Reflecting Pool.

Lawyers for Thiers and Dennison-Gibby declined to comment. CNN has reached out to Carreno’s attorney.

If found guilty of destruction of property, the defendants could be fined up to $1,000 and face a maximum of 180 days behind bars.

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The New York Times first reported that three additional people had been charged with damaging the Reflecting Pool.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that vandals caused major damage to the pool by gashing the lining after his administration spent more than $14 million on renovations, though he has not provided evidence to support that claim. The officers who charged Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby did not accuse them of gashing the lining.

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was indicted by a grand jury in Washington, DC, last week for allegedly damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn — unlike Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby – was charged with destruction of property with a value of more than $1,000 which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, if convicted. He is set to be arraigned in court Thursday.

Crews began draining the Reflecting Pool over the weekend to make repairs, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, for the second time in three months.

The move comes after weeks of problems – algae blooms, green-hued water, a chipping bottom and the administration’s allegations of vandalism – that have plagued the iconic landmark, making its woes the subject of national interest.

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