By I. Edwards HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, April 23, 2025 (HealthDay News) — At least three medical journals have received letters from a top federal prosecutor questioning whether they mislead readers or allow political bias to influence what they decide to publish.
The letters were signed by Edward Martin Jr., a Republican activist who now serves as interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., The New York Times reported.
Health officials say he has used his role to go after opponents of President Donald Trump.
One letter, sent to the journal Chest and obtained by The Times, asked if the journal allows “competing viewpoints” and how it handles funding from groups like the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“It has been brought to my attention that more and more journals and publications like CHEST Journal are conceding that they are partisans in various scientific debates,” Martin wrote in the letter to Chest, which asked the journal to respond by May 2.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also shown support for prosecuting medical journals — he claims they lie to the public and are too close to drug companies.
“I’m going to litigate against you under the racketeering laws, under the general tort laws,” Kennedy said in a previous interview, as reported by The Times. “I’m going to find a way to sue you unless you come up with a plan right now to show how you’re going to start publishing real science and stop retracting the real science and publishing the fake pharmaceutical science by these phony industry mercenaries.”
Some journals or publishers have openly opposed Trump. For example, in 2020, for the first time in its 208-year history, The New England Journal of Medicine published an editorial opposing a sitting president, The Times said.
Dr. Adam Gaffney, a Massachusetts-based pulmonologist who has published in Chest, called the letters “blatant political intimidation” of medical journals.
“This is a fishing expedition from a U.S. attorney, and that makes people nervous,” Kent Anderson, a consultant for scientific publishers, warned.
“It may make them think twice about an editorial about treating women who have a spontaneous abortion or about transgender teens dealing with a health issue, because it may make them think that somebody is going to knock on the door,” he said.
The American College of Chest Physicians confirmed it received a letter from Martin but declined to comment further, The Times added.
The U.S. attorney’s office and the Health and Human Services Department also declined to comment.
Some conservative groups have previously accused medical journals of bias.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal group, recently asked the Trump administration to stop funding for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, saying it promotes liberal values.
Experts say medical journals are protected by the First Amendment, just like news organizations.
More information
The American Journal of Medicine has more on free speech in research articles.
SOURCE: The New York Times, April 18, 2025
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