Berliner Abendpost - US ends case against doctor over alleged Covid vaccine scheme

The abrupt halt to proceedings comes just days after the trial commenced, and is the latest boost to the vaccine-skeptic movement from President Donald Trump's administration.

Michael Kirk Moore, a plastic surgeon in the western state of Utah, was charged by the Department of Justice in 2023 alongside his clinic and three others for "running a scheme" to defraud the government.

He was accused of destroying or disposing of over $28,000 worth of government-provided Covid vaccines and handing out at least 1,937 false vaccine record cards in exchange for payment.

Moore, who faced decades behind bars, was also accused of administering a saline solution to children -- at the behest of their parents -- so that they would think they had been vaccinated against Covid.

Moore's trial began this week at a federal court in Salt Lake City.

But on Tuesday, Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump's most vocal hard-right supporters, said she had written to Bondi calling for charges against Moore to be dropped.

"Dr. Moore gave his patients a choice when the federal government refused to do so. He did not deserve the years in prison he was facing. It ends today," Bondi wrote on X.

Bondi's decision also notably comes as she faces fire from right-wing activists over her handling of a probe into the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.

She thanked Greene and Utah Senator Mike Lee, another hard-right lawmaker, for their advocacy for dropping charges against Moore.

The Covid-19 pandemic sparked fierce political division in the US between those who supported lockdowns and vaccination drives, and those who considered the measures as restrictions on freedom.

Trump, himself vaccinated against Covid-19, has appointed as his Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has initiated an overhaul of American vaccine policy.

Kennedy said Moore "deserves a medal for his courage and commitment to healing," in an X post in April.

At the end of May, Kennedy announced that federal authorities would no longer recommend Covid-19 jabs for children and pregnant women, prompting accusations from medical groups that he was taking away parents' ability to opt for vaccinations.

Kennedy has been accused of spreading vaccine misinformation, including about the measles vaccine, even as the US grapples with its worst measles epidemic in 30 years.

R.Keller--BlnAP