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    • Health worker gets 2 years for accessing Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s medical records
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    Health worker gets 2 years for accessing Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s medical records

    Online Niel Posted on

    Matei Barakat
    | Associated Press

    Alexandria, Va. — A former health care worker who illegally accessed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s health records before she died was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison.

    Trent Russell, 34, of Bellevue, Nebraska, who was working at the time as a transplant coordinator for the Washington Regional Transplant Community and had access to hospital records throughout the region, was convicted earlier this year of accessing unlawful destruction of medical records and destruction or alteration of records at a jury trial.

    He was also tasked with publishing that information on the Internet in 2019, at a time when public speculation about Ginsburg’s health and her ability to serve as a justice was a matter of public debate. Prosecutors said he posted the information along with a false claim that Ginsburg had already died. But the jury acquitted Russell on that ground.

    Ginsburg served on the court until her death in 2020.

    Prosecutors said Russell leaked the health records on forums that peddled anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, including conspiracy theories that Ginsburg died, but Russell’s motivations for his actions were unclear. Indeed, Russell himself never admitted to accessing the records, at one point suggesting that perhaps his cat swiped the keyboard in a way that accidentally called up Ginsburg’s data.

    Russell’s apology and refusal to take responsibility drew sharp criticism from prosecutors, who asked for a 30-month sentence.

    “He gave a completely implausible apology with a straight face,” said prosecutor Zoe Bedell.

    Russell’s attorney, Charles Burnham, asked for a sentence of probation or home detention. He cited Russell’s life-saving work as a transplant coordinator and his military record, which included a deployment to Afghanistan, as mitigating factors.

    “Mr. Russell lived a quiet heroic life,” Burnham wrote in court papers. He described the criminal behavior as “being stupid.”

    U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff’s 24-month sentence, calling his crime “truly despicable conduct.”

    “You’ve made it extremely difficult to understand what motivated you,” Nachmanoff said. He said Russell made matters worse by lying to investigators and on the witness stand.

    “You chose to blame your cat,” Nachmanoff said.

    Court records in the case are carefully redacted to remove any reference to Ginsburg, but during the trial and at Thursday’s sentencing hearing, all sides openly acknowledged that Ginsburg was the victim of the privacy breach.

    Her status as a public figure, in fact, prompted a debate about the seriousness of Russell’s crime. Prosecutors said her high public profile, along with her age and illness, made her a particularly vulnerable victim.

    “He went with the Supreme Court justice who was old, who was sick, and whose illness was a public concern,” Bedell argued.

    Russell’s attorney, on the other hand, argued that Ginsburg’s high office and the power that comes with it is the opposite of vulnerability.

    Nachmanoff, in sentencing, said he took into account the fact that Russell has an ill stepparent who may need care. The judge noted “with some irony” that details of the stepparent’s health problems are under seal.

    “Why? Because it’s sensitive health information — a benefit you didn’t provide to Justice Ginsburg,” he said.

    Russell and his attorney declined to comment after Thursday’s hearing on whether he plans to appeal.

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