https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/05/02/nx-s1-5374993/medical-journals-hit-with-threatening-letters-from-justice-department

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Medical journals hit with threatening letters from Justice Department
: Shots - Health News The interim U.S. Attorney for the District of
Columbia has sent letters to several leading medical journals asking
for information about their editorial practices.
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Shots - Health News

Medical journals hit with threatening letters from Justice Department

May 2, 20254:30 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
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Rob Stein

Justice Department probes medical journals over partisanship

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Interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin speaking at a hearing on Capitol Hill
on June 13, 2023, in Washington, D.C.

Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin speaking
before his appointment at a hearing on Capitol Hill on June 13, 2023.
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Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images

The letters began arriving at medical journals around the country
over the last few weeks.

"It has been brought to my attention that more and more journals and
publications ... are conceding that they are partisans in various
scientific debates," wrote Edward R. Martin Jr., the interim U.S.
attorney for the District of Columbia, in a letter to the journal
CHEST.

Martin then asks a series of questions -- about misinformation,
competing viewpoints and the influence of funders such as advertisers
and the National Institutes of Health.

"The public has certain expectations and you have certain
responsibilities," the letter adds. Martin asks for a response by May
2.

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"We were surprised," says Dr. Eric Rubin, the editor in chief of The
New England Journal of Medicine, one of at least four journal editors
to get a letter from Martin and probably the most prominent. "Other
journals had gotten letters before so it wasn't a shock, but, still,
a surprise."

In addition to Rubin's journal, Martin has sent letters to JAMA, 
which is published by the American Medical Association; Obstetrics &
Gynecology, a journal of the American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists; and CHEST, which is published by the American College
of Chest Physicians. There may be others.

"We were concerned because there were questions that suggested that
we may be biased in the research we report," Rubin says. "We aren't.
We have a very rigorous review process. We use outside experts. We
have internal editors who are experts in their fields as well. And we
spend a lot of time choosing the right articles to publish and trying
to get the message right. We think we're an antidote for
misinformation."

Rubin says the letter mentioned that the journal has tax-exempt
status.

"It does feel like there's a threatening tone to the letter and it is
trying to intimidate us," Rubin says.

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The letters don't cite any specific examples of supposed bias, or say
what action Martin might take.

But others say the letters raise serious concerns.

"It's pretty unprecedented," says J.T. Morris, a lawyer at the
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech
advocacy group. He says the First Amendment protects medical
journals.

"Who knows? We've seen this administration take all sorts of action
that doesn't have a legal basis and it hasn't stopped them," Morris
says. "And so there's always a concern that the federal government
and its officials like Ed Martin will step outside and abuse their
authority and try to use the legal process and abuse the court system
into compelling scientific journals and medical professionals and
anybody else they disagree with into silence."

Science depends on publication in journals

Medical journals play a crucial role in vetting and disseminating
scientific information, including which treatments and public health
measures work, which don't and which ones might be dangerous or safe.

"It's an indication of the degree to which this administration will
go to try to interfere with scientific research and the scientific
community," says Carl Bergstrom, a professor of biology at the
University of Washington. "They'll do just about anything and tamper
with science in any way that they think will be helpful."

The letters come as the Trump administration has been trying to
influence what scientists can say in a variety of ways. The
administration has stifled communication by federal scientists and
slashed studies about misinformation, about how to talk about
vaccines and about LGBTQ health issues.

It has been requiring scientists to scrub language in their grants
and research deemed "woke," including gender terminology.

"This is a set of policies attacking the scientific community,
whether it's scientists in universities or in institutions like NIH,
FDA, CDC or journals and their editors," says Richard Horton, the
editor of The Lancet, a leading British medical journal. The Lancet
has not received one of the letters, Horton says, but published an
editorial condemning the inquiries.

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"This is a research ecosystem and it is the working of that research
ecosystem which has delivered these phenomenal breakthroughs over so
many decades. And that is what's being attacked," Horton says.

Trump administration has criticized journals

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and
National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya have both
criticized medical journals. Kennedy has even threatened legal action
against journals. Just before taking over at the NIH, Bhattacharya
helped start a new journal aimed at providing an alternative to
mainstream publications.

Neither Martin nor the Department of Justice responded to NPR's
requests for comment.

But some other people also assert that the dominant medical journals
are biased.

"I share concerns with the U.S. Attorney that American scientific
groups and journals have become far too activist and far too
left-wing in recent years," says Judge Glock, who directs research at
the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.

But even Glock and others who share that view stop short of wanting
the Justice Department to investigate medical journals.

"In general, the U.S. attorney shouldn't be concerning himself or
herself with the position of these particular journals," Glock says.
"They should not ask for information and they should not be trying to
encourage them to publish different types of editorials or change
their editorial practices based on what a U.S. attorney feels is
appropriate."

But there is some support for how is Martin is pressing the journals.

"They are absolutely biased and we've seen that they've been captured
by what I called a blob, which is a form of gatekeepers that are
colluding with the Big Pharma and the public health agencies and
academia and they all know each other," says Roger Severino of The
Heritage Foundation, another conservative think tank. "So, yes, there
has been a lot of bias, and they should be finding the truth first
and foremost. But instead they become just another special interest."

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