The Babylon Bee’s sister site has taken legal action in a high-profile case brought by the Justice Department against Texas Children’s Hospital whistleblower Eithan Haim, calling for certain public dockets to be unsealed.
Represented by The Dhillon Law Group, “Not the Bee” is asking that the court unseal “critical documents” in Haim’s case, arguing that they were sealed without clear justification. Unlike its satirical sister site, Not The Bee posts and promotes real news stories that are so absurd or outlandish sounding that they could be satire.
That includes the proceedings surrounding Haim, whom the Justice Department has targeted for exposing a children’s hospital for performing gender transition procedures on children. Not the Bee is interested in publishing news coverage of Haim’s case to “draw attention to the absurd fact that when a doctor exposed highly unethical medical practices, it was the doctor who faced criminal prosecution, despite his whistleblower status.”
“This case warrants maximum transparency,” the site argues in the filing, dated November 25, and filed in the United States District Court of Texas, Houston Division. “The unprecedented investigation and prosecution of Dr. Eithan Haim has been covered by many media outlets and news websites, including Not the Bee, and is a topic of conversation among prominent politicians, intellectuals, and legal commentators, as well as the public at large.”
Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
“The press and public have demonstrated substantial interest in Dr. Haim’s whistleblowing, the medical procedures on minors that are the subject of his revelations, the misconduct by the government in pursuing this prosecution, and the various setbacks that the government has faced in attempting to criminalize Dr. Haim’s efforts to bring to light the illegal conduct of Texas Children’s Hospital,” they added.
Not The Bee argues that it has standing to challenge the sealing of the documents since it is a member of the press, and the public and wants to obtain access to information concerning judicial proceedings. It also argues that the government hasn’t demonstrated any legitimate grounds for sealing the documents, “let alone the heightened grounds necessary to suppress the public’s First Amendment right of access to criminal proceedings and the press’s right to gather the news.”
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“Transparency in this case is essential — not just for justice but for public trust in the system,” Dhillon Law Group Founder and Managing Partner Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement this week. “The requested sealing [of] these documents is inconsistent with applicable law, violates the public right to examine the government’s conduct, and further would deprive the public of the First Amendment right to hear commentary about a matter of significant public interest — namely, the prosecution of a whistleblower raising alarm about alleged medical misconduct and mistreatment of minors in Texas.”
Haim blew the whistle on Texas Children’s in May 2023, in an explosive story published by journalist Christopher Rufo, alleging that the hospital had lied about ending its transgender medical program and was still performing attempted transition procedures on children as young as 11.
In June 2023, Haim received a home visit from federal agents, and learned the Justice Department was targeting him. On June 17, the Justice Department announced that it had indicted Haim for “obtaining protected individual health information for patients that were not under his care and without authorization.” If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 maximum possible fine.
In a post on X on Sunday, Haim argued that the Justice Department’s justification for a gag order is that they are concerned with “online bullying.”
“This perfectly encapsulates the defining feature of the modern day woke aristocrat,” he wrote. “They zealously deploy the threat or the outright use of state-sanctioned violence against those who challenge their political ideology yet cast themselves as the victim when regular citizens stand up, take notice, and utilize their first amendment right to criticize their tyrannical behavior. These prosecutors have no qualms about sending me to prison for a decade. They have no problem inventing new crimes to do so.”
The DOJ’s justification for a gag order is that they are concerned with “online bullying.”
This perfectly encapsulates the defining feature of the modern day woke aristocrat.
They zealously deploy the threat or the outright use of state-sanctioned violence against those who… pic.twitter.com/vqQZVm7wAo
— Eithan Haim MD (@EithanHaim) November 24, 2024
“They had no problem sending heavily armed US Marshals to my home at 7AM even though I am a law-abiding citizen with no criminal history,” he added. “They had no problem taking away my right to possess firearms knowing the legitimate death threats I would face from radical transgender activists. And I don’t bring this up to garner sympathy for myself but rather to demonstrate the magnitude of their hypocrisy.”
The Justice Department has no problem with any of the things he had previously mentioned, Haim, argued but they do have “a major problem with anyone noticing it happening.”
“Their corrupt gambit relies on the silence of their target to legitimize their corruption,” he added. “In my case, they knocked on the wrong door. I simply refuse to voluntarily comply with my own destruction.”