Robert F Kennedy Jr

Kennedy was born in Washington, D.C. in 1954. He is the son of former U.S. Attorney General and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) and Ethel Kennedy. Kennedy received a bachelor's degree in American history and literature from Harvard University, a law degree from the University of Virginia, and a master's degree in environmental law from Pace University. He began his career in 1982 as an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. Following an arrest for drug possession in 1983, Kennedy volunteered for the Natural Resources Defense Council. He also volunteered for Riverkeeper, a nonprofit seeking to preserve the Hudson River, and became the organization's chief attorney in 1985. Kennedy went on to found the Pace University Environmental Litigation Clinic in 1987. He worked as the clinic's supervising attorney, co-director, and as a law professor at Pace University from 1986 to 2018. He founded the Waterkeeper Alliance, a group seeking to "strengthen and grow a global network of grassroots leaders protecting everyone’s right to clean water," in 1999, and served as its chairman and attorney until 2017. In 2016, Kennedy founded Children's Health Defense, a nonprofit seeking to "end childhood health epidemics by working aggressively to eliminate harmful exposures, hold those responsible accountable and establish safeguards to prevent future harm." The organization says it participates in lawsuits to "assist with handling mandatory vaccination in schools, the workplace, and in travel -- as well as your right to informed consent. In a financial disclosure form filedin July 2023 with the Federal Election Commission. It shows that Mr. Kennedy earned $5 million at his environmental law firm, Kennedy & Madonna, and a $516,000 salary and bonus as chairman and chief legal counsel of Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit group he formed that has campaigned against vaccines. (The disclosure says he has been on leave from the organization since April, when he announced his campaign.) Kennedy reported nearly $1.6 million in consulting fees from Wisner Baum, a Los Angeles-based personal injury law firm formerly known as Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman. The firm’s website lists him as co-counsel on ongoing litigation over Gardasil — an HPV vaccine manufactured by Merck — as well as lawsuits over Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer and California wildfires. Mr. Kennedy also reported $150,000 in consulting fees from the Marwood Group, which describes itself as a health care advisory firm based in New York. And he reported $125,000 from Skyhorse Publishing, which publishes his books and, according to the disclosure, pays him as a consultant.