Charges dropped against Utah doctor accused of throwing away $28,000 in COVID vaccine doses
Jul 12, 2025, 3:04 PM
Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks to the media, Friday, June 27, 2025, in the briefing room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The federal government on Saturday dismissed charges against a Utah plastic surgeon accused of throwing away COVID-19 vaccines, giving children saline shots instead of the vaccine and selling faked vaccination cards.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on the social media platform X that charges against Dr. Michael Kirk Moore, of Midvale, Utah, were dismissed at her direction.
Moore and other defendants faced up to 35 years in prison after being charged with conspiracy to defraud the government; conspiracy to convert, sell, convey and dispose of government property; and aiding and abetting in those efforts. The charges were brought when Joe Biden was president.
鈥淒r. Moore gave his patients a choice when the federal government refused to do so,鈥� Bondi wrote. 鈥淗e did not deserve the years in prison he was facing. It ends today.鈥�
Felice John Viti, acting U.S. attorney for Utah, filed the motion Saturday, saying 鈥渟uch dismissal is in the interests of justice.鈥�
The trial began Monday in Salt Lake City with jury selection. It was expected to last 15 days.
Messages sent to the U.S. Department of Justice, Viti鈥檚 office in Salt Lake City and to Moore were not immediately returned Saturday to The Associated Press.
A federal grand jury on Jan. 11, 2023, returned an indictment against Moore, his Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah Inc., others associated with the clinic and a neighbor of Moore’s. The indictment alleged more than $28,000 of government-provided COVID-19 vaccine doses were destroyed.
They were also accused of providing fraudulently completed vaccination record cards for over 1,900 doses of the vaccine in exchange for either a cash or a donation to a specified charitable organization.
The government also alleged some children were given saline shots, at their parents鈥� request, so the minors believed they were getting the vaccine.
Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., a leading anti-vaccine activist before becoming the nation鈥檚 top health official, posted his support for Moore in April, saying on X that Moore “deserves a medal for his courage and his commitment to healing!鈥�
During his confirmation hearings in January, Kennedy repeatedly refused to acknowledge scientific consensus that childhood vaccines don鈥檛 cause autism and that COVID-19 vaccines saved millions of lives.
In a follow-up X post on Saturday, Bondi said Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene brought the case to her attention.
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Thiessen reported from Anchorage, Alaska.
