{"id":642476,"date":"2026-05-14T10:44:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T10:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/642476\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T10:44:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T10:44:22","slug":"after-a-string-of-losses-in-its-anti-trans-project-doj-turns-to-grand-jury-subpoenas-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/642476\/","title":{"rendered":"After a string of losses in its anti-trans project, DOJ turns to grand jury subpoenas in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Trump administration is apparently shifting tactics to advance its stated policy to \u201creduce or eliminate gender-related care to minors\u201c by using the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in the Northern District of Texas to try and get invasive information from medical providers about transgender minor patients obtaining gender-affirming medical care.<\/p>\n

The apparent shift came after more than a half-dozen federal judges across the nation have blocked the effort to obtain patient information through administrative subpoenas; following a hearing in multistate litigation against the Trump administration\u2019s anti-trans policies; and in the midst of a sprawling dispute over the Justice Department\u2019s effort to enforce one of the administrative subpoenas \u2014 issued last year against Rhode Island Hospital \u2014 in the same district in Texas. <\/p>\n

The Trump administration has advanced an anti-transgender philosophy since day one<\/a> of President Donald Trump\u2019s second term, with then-Attorney General Pam Bondi seeking to put the Trump administration\u2019s anti-trans policy positions into practice in a memo<\/a> issued more than a year ago. Over this past summer, Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, the head of the Civil Division, signed about 20 administrative subpoenas, seeking records from providers of gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. Soon thereafter, some providers and patients began challenging the requests. Judges were skeptical of DOJ\u2019s efforts<\/a> \u2014 and began blocking them<\/a> or at least the patient-specific requests. <\/p>\n

As early as December 22, 2025, several states that are engaged in a lawsuit against the Trump administration\u2019s anti-trans policies cited<\/a> the administrative subpoena effort \u2014 and its universal opposition from federal courts to the patient-specific requests. On April 20, the states submitted<\/a> in their case the transcript<\/a> from an August 2025 hearing in one of the subpoena challenges in advance of an April 23 hearing in their case.<\/p>\n

In that transcript, longtime DOJ lawyer Patrick Runkle acknowledged the purpose of the investigation was to stop trans minors from being able to obtain gender-affirming medical care:<\/p>\n

[T]he policy is that the executive branch wants to reduce or eliminate gender-related care to minors, especially the medicalized gender-related care to minors that this investigation is about \u2026.<\/p>\n

On September 9, 2025, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun had rejected DOJ\u2019s argument and granted<\/a> Boston Children\u2019s Hospital\u2019s motion to quash the administrative subpoena.<\/p>\n

This pattern continued<\/a> uninterrupted until DOJ secretly went to<\/a> the Northern District of Texas and sought an order<\/a> enforcing the subpoena issued against Rhode Island Hospital on April 30. U.S. District Judge Reed O\u2019Connor \u2014 without informing the hospital, let alone allowing it time to respond \u2014 granted<\/a> DOJ\u2019s motion the same day in a two-page order, ordering the hospital to comply with the subpoena by May 14. <\/p>\n

In the motion, and as noted at the time, DOJ provided no specific information as to how its Rhode Island Hospital investigation related to the Northern District of Texas, nor did O\u2019Connor address that in his threadbare order granting DOJ\u2019s request. <\/p>\n

As the calendar turned into May, DOJ apparently shifted tactics \u2014 although the timing and the specific reasons for doing so remain murky \u2014 by having the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in the Northern District of Texas issue grand jury subpoenas. NYU\u2019s Langone Health first directly acknowledged<\/a> the move, stating on May 11 that it was one of \u201cseveral institutions\u201c that received the grand jury subpoena on May 7. <\/p>\n

On May 13, NYU Langone posted<\/a> the subpoena itself, which was sought by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Womble, a former clerk to O\u2019Connor, and dated May 6. <\/p>\n

Among other documents it orders NYU Langone to produce, it \u2014 like the administrative subpoenas \u2014 includes patient-specific and patient-identifiable information:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The shift to the use of the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in the Northern District of Texas \u2014 headed by Ryan Raybould<\/a>, another former O\u2019Connor clerk \u2014 to issue grand jury subpoenas appears to have come as or after Rhode Island\u2019s Child Advocate filed a motion<\/a> on May 4 in the federal court in Rhode Island to quash the administrative subpoena against Rhode Island Hospital. <\/p>\n

Also on May 6, in the Northern District of Texas, Rhode Island Hospital itself appealed<\/a> O\u2019Connor\u2019s order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. (It is not clear whether the notice of appeal came before the grand jury subpoenas were issued, or whether the notice of appeal followed the issuance of the grand jury subpoenas.)<\/p>\n

The shift also appears to have coincided with a May 6 deadline for DOJ to file its brief in its appeal of a subpoena partially quashed<\/a> as to Children\u2019s Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP). Instead, at 4:44 p.m. ET May 6, DOJ filed a motion<\/a> at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit seeking to dismiss its appeal. At the time, DOJ stated that the hospital \u201chas stated that it intends to oppose this motion.\u201c In a filing on May 11, however, lawyers for CHOP had shifted<\/a> their view:<\/p>\n

\"RESPONSE<\/a><\/p>\n

Although the response did not explicitly state it, the language \u2014 \u201cfurther disputes continue to arise\u201c \u2014 suggested that CHOP may have been one of the other institutions that received a grand jury subpoena (and that its lawyers did not know so when they had initially opposed dismissing the appeal on May 6). On May 12 then, the Third Circuit dismissed<\/a> the appeal.<\/p>\n

The whole shift, though, appears to have happened quickly. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the Northern District of Texas venue claims being central to this shift, the subpoena itself directly states that the documents are to be sent to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration agent in Kansas City.<\/p>\n

In the week since, information about the grand jury subpoenas began to appear in court filings and elsewhere. <\/p>\n

First, in addition to noting its appeal on May 6, Rhode Island Hospital filed a motion<\/a> asking O\u2019Connor to stay the order while it appealed it. When DOJ responded<\/a> on May 8, it also filed a secret declaration with O\u2019Connor from Lisa Hsiao, a longtime DOJ lawyer who is now the acting director of DOJ\u2019s Enforcement and Affirmative Litigation Branch. (The declaration was filed under seal and ex parte, meaning even the Rhode Island Hospital lawyers did not see it at the time.) DOJ publicly stated that the declaration showed that \u201cthere is substantial operational and decision-making control of the investigation being exercised at the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in the Northern District of Texas, along with several subjects and potential targets of the investigation located here.\u201c It also claimed that \u201cthere are substantial investigative steps happening here.\u201d <\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, O\u2019Connor, on May 10, denied<\/a> Rhode Island Hospital\u2019s request to stay the order compelling compliance (with a short-lived exception for the Fifth Circuit to rule on a similar stay request). At that point, O\u2019Connor did provide additional reasoning for his earlier threadbare order, and DOJ has since used that order from O\u2019Connor to provide support for its arguments in other courts. Notably, however, O\u2019Connor again based his decision, in part, on material Rhode Island Hospital had not seen and could not have responded to:<\/p>\n

\"According<\/a><\/p>\n

The day before O\u2019Connor\u2019s ruling, the hospital had filed its request<\/a> for a stay at the Fifth Circuit given the impending deadline. <\/p>\n

In the meantime, on May 11 and as noted above, NYU Langone brought the news out into the open.<\/p>\n

On May 12, at 11:39 a.m. CT \u2014 with a noon deadline \u2014 DOJ responded<\/a> to the hospital\u2019s Fifth Circuit stay request, opposing the request and citing its \u201cex parte declaration\u201d and O\u2019Connor\u2019s \u201ccredit[ing]\u201d of it. Less than four hours later, with no reasoning provided, the three-judge panel denied<\/a> the stay request. <\/p>\n

At the same time, however, across the country, U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy was digging into the matter filed in Rhode Island. On May 10, Rhode Island Hospital had sought to join<\/a> the matter, filing its own motion to quash<\/a> the subpoena the next day. That same day, McElroy \u2014 who previously denied DOJ\u2019s request to send the matter to O\u2019Connor \u2014 ordered DOJ to provide her with the secret Hsiao declaration and any other materials provided to O\u2019Connor so that she would have them for the May 12 hearing. <\/p>\n

It did not go well for DOJ. As the Boston Globe\u2019s Steph Machado summarized<\/a> the hearing: <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As Machado explained, DOJ lawyer Brantley Mayers \u2014 who had only served as a judicial law clerk for three judges before joining DOJ in November 2025 as counsel to Civil Division chief Shumate \u2014 faced tough questions and accusations from McElroy:<\/p>\n

During a four-hour hearing on Tuesday, Rhode Island federal Judge Mary S. McElroy, who is considering blocking the subpoena, accused the DOJ of \u201cshopping\u201d the case to a Texas judge to enforce a Rhode Island subpoena. McElroy said lawyers then appeared to have \u201cmisled\u201d the judge on multiple fronts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is dirty pool in my opinion,\u201d McElroy said.<\/p>\n

A ruling from McElroy could come at any time, but, given the grand jury subpoenas, it is clear that, while an important fight, this is just another step in the constant pushback against this DOJ effort \u2014 and against the Trump administration\u2019s broader anti-trans project. <\/p>\n

[Update, 7:55 p.m.: Minutes after publication, Judge McElroy did rule, quashing the administrative subpoena in full<\/a> and calling out the Justice Department\u2019s behavior in the matter as \u2014 in part \u2014 \u201cmisrepresent[ing] salient facts\u201d under oath. <\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

In key part, as to the Rhode Island Hospital administrative subpoena, she concluded, \u201c[T]he Court GRANTS both Motions to Quash and enjoins the DOJ from seeking or receiving any documents related to this now invalid subpoena.\u201d]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration is apparently shifting tactics to advance its stated policy to \u201creduce or eliminate gender-related care…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-642476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}