WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials had already reviewed a criminal case against a Utah doctor accused of selling fake Covid vaccination cards and allowed it to proceed before Attorney General Pam Bondi suddenly intervened over the weekend and ordered the case dismissed, a defense attorney said.
Dr. Michael Kirk Moore was on trial last week in a case involving claims that more than $28,000 in Covid-19 vaccinations were destroyed as part of an alleged scheme involving the issuance of fake vaccine cards. Moore was indicted on the charges in 2023.
On Saturday, Bondi announced on the platform X that she was ordering the charges against Moore dismissed, writing that the doctor "gave his patients a choice when the federal government refused to do so." Bondi said the dismissal “would not have been possible” without Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and thanked Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
Moore's attorney, Kathy Nester, told NBC News that she submitted information about the case for review by Justice Department leadership earlier this year after Bondi announced the formation of a "Weaponization Working Group" to investigate claims of federal law enforcement being used against Trump allies and advocates.
“As an advocate for my client, I just wanted to try anything we could to help him,” Nester said. “I thought the weaponization committee was interesting and new and might fall under the type of cases they would be interested in reviewing.”
As first reported by Bloomberg Law, Nester submitted the case to the Justice Department group back in April and asked for it to be reviewed. A counsel for the office of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told her they declined to move to end the prosecution.
"When I got the word they were not going to intervene, I just started getting ready for trial and did not pursue any more political avenues," Nester said.
Bondi’s decision to drop the case over the weekend came at a time when the attorney general is facing blowback from Trump supporters over the Justice Department not releasing more information about the Jeffrey Epstein case.
It's unclear if there will be additional fallout from the Moore case. Acting U.S. Attorney Felice John Viti signed paperwork to have the case dismissed. Other career prosecutors who had worked on the case did not sign onto the dismissal filing.
On Friday, Bondi fired numerous Justice Department employees who had previously worked with former Special Counsel Jack Smith on the investigations into Trump over his handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
