RFK Jr. Claims Calendar Is Public While HHS Blocks FOIA Requests; Disputes Media Reports on Engagement
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pointed to his 'publicly available calendar' as evidence of transparency, but no such calendar has been released and STAT News has been unable to obtain it via FOIA requests for over a year. Kennedy simultaneously attacked a New York Times report calling him disengaged, admitting in his social media response that HHS is 'unwilling to talk' to certain journalists. The episode highlights a stark gap between Kennedy's stated commitment to 'radical transparency' and HHS's documented record of stonewalling press, lawmakers, and citizens seeking public records.
During a public appearance on Wednesday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited his 'publicly available calendar' as proof of his administration's openness, but no such calendar exists in the public domain. STAT News has submitted multiple FOIA requests for Kennedy's calendar and that of his deputy chief of staff since early 2024, none of which have been completed or, in some cases, even acknowledged — a violation of HHS's own 10-day response policy. The agency's FOIA tracking webpage has been taken down, a new portal Kennedy promised remains offline, and one pending appeal had more than 600 others ahead of it in the queue as of March. Kennedy's transparency claims came as he lashed out at a New York Times report by Sheryl Gay Stolberg alleging he is disengaged from his department's vast health portfolio, dismissing it as a 'hit piece' sourced by 'disgruntled' former employees he fired or forced out; the Times responded that its reporting was based on a dozen direct sources and that Kennedy declined an interview. In his social media rebuttal, Kennedy explicitly acknowledged that HHS withholds access from certain journalists whose coverage it dislikes, stating the department is 'unwilling to talk' to New York Times reporters — an admission critics characterized as a formal blacklisting policy. Democratic lawmakers have also reported being stonewalled by HHS, while at least one leader of Kennedy's former anti-vaccine organization, Children's Health Defense, has reportedly received faster FOIA responses than other requesters. The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in May 2025 over HHS's failure to release Kennedy's calendars, though the case has not yet advanced.
What's missing
The articles do not detail the specific legal standards or penalties, if any, that apply when a federal agency systematically fails to meet its own FOIA response deadlines, nor do they clarify the current total number of FOIA staff remaining at HHS following reported cuts, which would help quantify the capacity gap underlying the 12,000-request backlog.
How coverage differed
STAT News and Ars Technica framed the story around Kennedy's transparency failures and the contradiction between his public claims and documented FOIA obstruction, with Ars Technica characterizing his social media post as a 'meltdown' and evidence of disengagement. Fox News and the New York Post focused almost entirely on Kennedy's counterattack against the Times, presenting his criticisms of anonymous sourcing and media bias sympathetically without substantively engaging with the FOIA evidence or the blacklisting admission.
What different sources said
- New York PostRight
RFK Jr. rips NYT for publishing ‘hit piece’ sourced by ‘disgruntled’ ex- employees: ‘Propagandists’
- Fox NewsRight
RFK Jr accuses NYT of publishing 'hit piece' sourced by 'disgruntled' employees he purged
- STAT NewsCenter
RFK Jr. claims his calendar is publicly available. We’ve been trying to get it for a year
- Ars TechnicaCenter
RFK Jr. melts down over NYT report, admits he blacklists reporters
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