Health care worker gets 2 years for accessing Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s medical records
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A former health care worker who illegally accessed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s health records before her death was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison.
Trent Russell, 34, of Bellevue, Nebraska, who at the time worked as a transplant coordinator for the Washington Regional Transplant Community and had access to hospital records across the region, was convicted earlier this year of illegally accessing health care records and destroying or altering them of data during a jury trial.
He was also accused of publishing that information online in 2019, at a time when public speculation about Ginsburg’s health and her ability to serve as a judge 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 count.
Ginsburg served on the court until her death in 2020.
Prosecutors said Russell disclosed the health records on forums that trafficked in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, including conspiracy theories that Ginsburg was dead, but Russell’s motivations for his actions were unclear. Russell himself never admitted to accessing the data, and at one point suggested that perhaps his cat walked across the keyboard in a way that accidentally brought up Ginsburg’s data.
Russell’s apology and refusal to accept responsibility led to blistering criticism from prosecutors, who demanded a 30-month prison sentence.
“He made a completely implausible apology with a straight face,” prosecutor Zoe Bedell said.
Russell’s attorney, Charles Burnham, demanded probation or house arrest. He cited Russell’s work saving lives as a transplant coordinator and his military record, including a deployment to Afghanistan, as mitigating factors.
“Mr. Russell lived a quietly heroic life,” Burnham wrote in the lawsuits. He attributed the criminal behavior to “being stupid.”
U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff imposed a 24-month prison 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 have been carefully redacted to remove any reference to Ginsburg, but during the trial and Thursday’s hearing, all parties openly acknowledged that Ginsburg was the victim of the invasion of privacy.
Her status as a public figure actually sparked a debate about the seriousness of Russell’s crime. Prosecutors said her high public profile, in addition to her age and illness, made her a particularly vulnerable victim.
“He went with the Supreme Court judge, who was old, 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 said he would take into account the fact that Russell has a sick stepparent who may need care when handing down his sentence. The judge noted “with some irony” that the details of the stepparent’s health problems are secret.
“Why? Because it involves sensitive health information – a benefit you did not provide to Justice Ginsburg,” he said.
Russell and his attorney declined to comment after Thursday’s hearing on whether they plan to appeal.