Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. amended his annual financial disclosure in mid-September 2026, months after the May filing deadline. The Wall Street Journal obtained it through a records request and published on September 18; NPR read the document separately and reported on September 22. Two outlets reading the same primary form is why this is on the record rather than in the pile of things a single story asserts.
The gifts, all received in 2025, come from Gavin de Becker, the security consultant whose firm provided protection to Kennedy and who was a major donor to his 2024 presidential campaign. They include nearly $97,000 in round-trip flights to Fiji, where de Becker owns property; almost $45,000 for one round trip to Greece; and the use of de Becker's vacation home in Washington. The total is more than a quarter of a million dollars. Smaller items: a roughly $900 private flight to Aspen from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and WWE box seats from Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
The book advances are the other half. Kennedy disclosed $4 million from Skyhorse Publishing, $2 million each for two forthcoming titles, Unsettled Science and A Defense for Israel, with a further advance of less than $15,000 expected for a third. NPR's Sydney Lupkin put that in proportion: “$2 million per book is a lot when you consider that the salary for being health secretary is around $250,000.” NPR also reported the rule that sits behind it: a public servant of Kennedy's rank is not allowed to write books for pay while in office, including taking notes, though “enforcing that is tricky.” Skyhorse is also de Becker's publisher, and Kennedy's ethics agreement bars him from promoting his earlier Skyhorse books, which did not stop him posting on X about The Real Anthony Fauci during this summer's Fauci hearings.
Nobody has found a violation. Virginia Canter of the Democracy Defenders Fund raised the question rather than answering it: “Those are large amounts of money for a government's public servant to receive while he is, you know, in office,” and what is fine in the private sector is not necessarily fine in public office. Federal ethics rules do allow gifts from personal friends, and de Becker says the two have been friends a long time and that he has nothing to do with HHS. HHS did not answer NPR's detailed questions but says Kennedy complies with all laws, regulations and requirements, and has consulted the department's ethics officials.
One open question was not closed by the filing. Kennedy's original 2025 ethics agreement let him take a 10 percent cut of contingency fees on Merck Gardasil cases he referred to the firm Wisner Baum; after Sen. Elizabeth Warren objected at his confirmation hearing, the agreement was amended to route the cut to a nondependent adult family member. The stake did not go there. An August 25, 2026 HHS letter released by Warren says that on February 11, 2025, two days before his confirmation vote, Kennedy assigned the stake directly to Wisner Baum instead (see RFK Jr. Gave His Gardasil Fee Stake to His Old Law Firm, Not His Son, Two Days Before His Confirmation Vote). The Gardasil litigation settled over the summer. The disclosure lists a $7,000 payment from Wisner Baum, described as compensation for terminating the fee agreement. The firm told NPR the payment was unrelated to the Gardasil case and that neither Kennedy nor his family received any of that settlement money. Kathleen Clark, who teaches government-ethics law at Washington University, framed why anyone is asking: “What if Merck is just plying HHS Secretary Kennedy with money through this settlement because Merck has a lot of business before HHS?”
See also HHS Told Appropriators It Moved $12 Million From the Office of Minority Health to Cover Kennedy's Security Costs.