RFK Jr. Collected $4 Million in Book Deals and $270,000 in Gifts While His Allies Sell Access to His Agency for $300,000

The disclosure

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s latest federal ethics disclosure, signed off by an HHS ethics official on September 17 and obtained by NPR affiliate WVIA, shows the health secretary took in roughly $4 million in book advances over the past year, all from Skyhorse Publishing, the house owned by his longtime friend and publisher Tony Lyons.

The two advances, $2 million apiece, were first reported by the New York Times and confirmed by the Guardian. One of the forthcoming titles is called Unsettled Science, a direct jab at the phrase used to describe the scientific consensus on vaccine safety.

In a 2024 ethics filing, Kennedy pledged he would "not engage in writing, editing, marketing or promotional services for any of these books during government service." WVIA reports he has since promoted at least one of his own books on social media anyway.

The gifts

Beyond the book money, Kennedy reported more than $270,000 in gifts, according to MedPage Today's review of the filings. That includes $126,500 in housing value for a Washington, D.C. vacation home owned by Gavin de Becker, a security consultant and close friend, plus nearly $45,000 in roundtrip flights to Greece and nearly $97,000 in roundtrip flights to Fiji, where de Becker owns a compound, according to the Guardian.

De Becker isn't just a travel buddy. He donated at least $10 million to Kennedy's 2024 presidential super PAC, of which $9.65 million was later returned, according to Politico's reporting cited by the Guardian. De Becker has also published his own vaccine-skeptic book, Forbidden Facts, through Skyhorse.

Kennedy's wife, actress Cheryl Hines, separately collected $210,000 in consulting fees from Maha Action, another Lyons-run nonprofit, per the Guardian's review of the filings.

HHS spokesperson told the New York Times that Kennedy "complies with all applicable federal ethics laws, regulations and financial disclosure requirements" and works with career ethics officials to handle his finances appropriately. De Becker told the Times the friendship long predates Kennedy's government role: "He has hosted my family at his homes, he's stayed at my homes, we take family vacations together every year, and did so for years before he was in his current job."

Kedric Payne, senior ethics counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, told the Times that lavish gifts from major political donors to a sitting official don't disappear just because the parties are friends. No formal ethics investigation into the disclosures has been announced.

Pay to sit with the secretary

While Kennedy's personal finances draw scrutiny, an organization tied to his ecosystem is selling access to him directly. Ahead of the MAHA Summit scheduled for September 29, MAHA Center, another Lyons-affiliated nonprofit, circulated a sponsorship menu to companies offering a top tier at $300,000, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg News and reported by the Los Angeles Times. That tier guarantees a speaking slot with "meaningful input on the panel composition and topic" and a private dinner for 30 guests with Kennedy and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz.

Confirmed sponsors include Anthropic, OpenAI, Walmart, Hims & Hers, Centene and cancer-screening company Grail, whose blood test faces an FDA advisory panel review. HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said department officials scheduled to speak "were not involved in the planning or sponsorship activities for the MAHA Summit and were not aware of the sponsorship arrangements described."

Several sponsoring companies operate in sectors HHS regulates directly.

The MAHA base is turning on him too

It isn't just ethics watchdogs and reporters raising questions. On September 21, a coalition of MAHA-aligned figures sent Kennedy and President Trump an open letter accusing them of dragging their feet on mRNA vaccines, according to the Epoch Times. Signatories include Rep. Thomas Massie, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, commentator Tucker Carlson, and Dr. Robert Malone, whom Kennedy himself picked to advise the CDC on vaccines.

"If you continue to ignore our central issue of removing the mRNA platform, the MAHA and health freedom movements will withdraw their support of you," the letter states, organized by Texas physician Dr. Mary Talley Bowden.

An HHS spokesperson countered that Kennedy "has been clear that he believes mRNA products warrant heightened scientific scrutiny" and that the department "continues to support mRNA research where the science shows promise, including for hard-to-treat cancers." CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz maintains the vaccines are safe and effective.

Kennedy faces criticism from two directions. Ethics reporters are flagging money from friends and allies, while his own movement's hardliners accuse him of going soft. Both fights point to the same underlying question: whether a health secretary who built his career attacking institutional capture has built a smaller, friendlier version of the same thing around himself. The MAHA Summit on September 29 will be the next test of how those tensions play out in public.