Judge accuses DOJ of bullying QueerDoc, rips up subpoena to transgender care clinic

A federal judge has quashed a Justice Department subpoena of QueerDoc, which specializes in telemedicine for transgender people, saying the Trump administration is attempting to “intimidate and coerce” the business to stop offering its services.

U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead, a Biden appointee to the court in Washington state, rejected the department’s claims that QueerDoc was prescribing off-label uses of drugs as puberty blockers for juveniles.

He said the subpoena was a fishing expedition in a quest “to rifle through thousands of patient records hoping to find something — anything — to justify its predetermined goal of ending gender-affirming care.”

He said he was startled to think the department had assigned “multiple” FBI agents to investigate the small firm, which convinced him the subpoena was less about violations of federal law and more about badgering QueerDoc itself.

“When a federal agency issues a subpoena not to investigate legal violations but to intimidate and coerce providers into abandoning lawful medical care, it exceeds its legitimate authority and abuses the judicial process,” Judge Whitehead wrote.

QueerDoc was one of more than 20 companies to receive a subpoena this summer as Attorney General Pam Bondi investigated clinics and doctors performing “transgender medical procedures” on children.

In a statement after Judge Whitehead’s ruling Monday, the department defended its investigation.

“As Attorney General Bondi has made clear, this Department of Justice will use every legal and law enforcement tool available to protect innocent children from being mutilated under the guise of ‘care,’” the department said.

At the time it issued the subpoenas, the department said it was carrying out President Trump’s orders to discourage gender treatments for minors.

The Washington Times has reached out to QueerDoc for this article.

The firm bills itself as a telemedicine service that offers “gender affirming medical care,” including hormone treatments, puberty blockers and surgery referrals. It serves 10 states and says it is staffed by “queer and gender diverse providers.”

The company states that it has a limit on the age at which it is willing to start the treatments.

The Justice Department’s subpoena demanded the company’s personnel files, billing and insurance records, and names, addresses, Social Security numbers and treatment histories for those prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy.

The judge called that a “staggering” scope and said some of those requests had nothing to do with the off-label prescribing that the government said it was investigating.

Allan Gordus, a Justice Department counsel, said QueerDoc’s website appears to offer misleading claims about what puberty blockers do and the ability to reverse the treatments. The company also acknowledges that it sometimes uses false billing codes to obscure the fact that it is prescribing gender treatments, he said.

“There is evidence that QueerDoc may have an intent to defraud and mislead,” he told the judge in a filing late last month.

He pointed to an interview by QueerDoc founder Crystal Beal, who said they felt “compelled to defy anti-trans law” by offering their services even in states that attempted to make it illegal.

Judge Whitehead said Mr. Gordus made his assertions too late in the case and that they only deepened his conclusion that the subpoenas were “pretextual.”

“The devotion of ‘substantial national investigation’ resources with ‘multiple FBI agents’ to investigate a small telehealth provider that neither manufactures drugs nor submits insurance claims underscores that this investigation targets the provision of gender-affirming care itself, not any legitimate federal violation,” the judge wrote.

Judge Whitehead’s ruling is reverberating with some of the other subpoenas issued.

In Philadelphia, patients of Children’s Hospital, which had battled a subpoena arguing it could disclose their private data to the government, submitted Judge Whitehead’s decision to the judge overseeing its case.