Charges dropped against Utah doctor accused of distributing fake COVID-19 vaccination cards

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Charges against Utah surgeon Michael Kirk Moore Jr. for distributing fake COVID-19 cards were dropped.
• U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi dismissed charges, citing patients' medical choice respect.
• Moore's attorneys argue no crime committed; prosecutors allege vaccine destruction and fraud.

SALT LAKE CITY — Federal charges have been dropped against a Utah plastic surgeon already on trial for allegedly destroying vaccines and giving out fake vaccination cards during the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Saturday ordered the Department of Justice to dismiss all charges against Michael Kirk Moore Jr., his business — the Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah — and his neighbor, Kristin Jackson Andersen, who was also allegedly involved.

"Dr. Moore gave his patients a choice when the federal government refused to do so. He did not deserve the years in prison he was facing. It ends today," Bondi said in a post on the social platform X.

Moore, his business and his neighbor were accused of conducting a scheme in which they distributed false COVID-19 vaccination record cards to individuals who did not want the vaccine. Critics of the vaccine have rallied around Moore, arguing that he shouldn't face any jail time.

His trial started Monday and immediately gained national recognition. On Tuesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., announced that she had written a letter to the Department of Justice, asking that all charges against Moore be dropped.

"This man is a hero, not a criminal," Greene posted on X. Bondi ultimately granted that request.

In a statement released Saturday, Moore's attorneys said, "This was the right decision – and the just one."

The attorneys said Moore had been living under a "cloud of federal investigation" and maintained his innocence the whole time.

"During this past week, during trial, we were finally able to begin presenting the full truth of this case in open court. We were confident that the facts – and the jury – would speak clearly in their favor," the statement continues.

The decision for the attorney general to dismiss charges before the trial even ends "reflects what the evidence has shown all along: that our clients did not commit a crime," Moore's attorneys said.

"They honored the personal medical choices of their patients. They never received a dollar in return. And no unexpired vaccines were ever destroyed," the statement concluded.

Moore, his company and Andersen were indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2023 on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to convert, sell, convey and dispose of government property; and aiding and abetting in the conversion, sale, conveyance and disposal of government property.

Moore and his business were accused of destroying "hundreds of doses of government-provided vaccines, and in exchange for either direct cash payments or, most often, required 'donations' to a specified charitable organization, defendants distributed COVID-19 vaccination record cards to persons without administering a COVID-19 vaccine to them," according to charging documents.

Prosecutors argued the case was not about motive, as it didn't hinge on the opinions of vaccine efficacy or the morality of government mandates during a pandemic. Instead, it was about whether Moore conspired to obstruct the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID-19 vaccination program and destroyed government property, specifically the vaccines and COVID-19 vaccination cards.

Prosecutors said more than 2,000 doses of the vaccination — worth a little more than $28,000 — were supposed to be given to about 1,500 patients between Oct. 15, 2021, and Sept. 6, 2022, "when, in fact, they had received none." Plastic Surgery Institute employees would then dispose of the vaccines, prosecutors alleged.

"Hundreds of Utah providers stepped up to be part of the program. One provider, Dr. Michael Kirk Moore, stepped up to trample it and obstruct the program," prosecutor Sachiko Jepson said during opening arguments Wednesday.

Andersen allegedly aided in the scheme by being the main point of contact for the "elaborate system" set up to screen individuals seeking false record cards, which included a $50 "donation" made to a "charitable organization" in exchange for a card appointment, prosecutors said.

Defense attorney Kathryn Neal Nester argued in court Wednesday that Moore and the other defendants did not obstruct a federal program because the CDC left monitoring vaccinations up to the states' discretion, and program providers were given autonomy and authority to decide when or why a vaccine may be destroyed.

The CDC program's mission was to provide vaccines to anyone who wanted them, and Moore's actions never blocked anyone who wanted one from receiving it; thus, he never interfered with a federal program, Nester said. "He couldn't have."

"Filling out (the cards) with false information was dishonest, it surely was, but it wasn't a federal crime," Nester said in court Wednesday.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Cassidy Wixom

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Cassidy Wixom is an award-winning reporter for KSL.com. She covers Utah County communities, arts and entertainment, and breaking news. Cassidy graduated from BYU before joining KSL in 2022.