In July 2024, a federal jury found 34-year-old Trent James Russell guilty of unlawful access to the health data of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg when he was working as the coordinator of an organ transplant company, though was found not guilty with regards to the charge of posting that data on the internet.
Trent James Russell, an ex-resident of Arlington, VA, worked at an organ transplant coordination company from 2017 to 2019. In January 2019, Russell viewed Ginsburg’s health data and took a picture of those data. As soon as Russell learned that his access to health data was removed, he destroyed the evidence by formatting his hard drive to avoid the investigation by law enforcement. Lately, U.S. District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff sentenced Russell to two years in jail.
Trent J. Russell was accused of accessing Ginsburg’s health data in 2019 when she was having cancer therapy at George Washington University Hospital and sharing the data on the 4chan online message board, which is popular for conspiracy theory conversations. The posted information included Ginsburg’s name, treatments, and dates of treatment from 2014 to 2018. The 4chan platform users talked about conspiracy theories regarding Ginsburg, which include one that she had passed away, and her demise was being kept hidden to keep President Trump from replacing the Supreme Court judge.
George Washington University Hospital checked access records and discovered unauthorized access to Ginsburg’s data using Russell’s data, and the access was tracked to his personal computer. Russell was hired as an organ transplant coordinator by the Washington Regional Transplant Community (WRTC) and was given access to health records at George Washington University Hospital to carry out his work tasks, including going to the hospital to assess patients in preparation for organ transplants.
Russell learned about the HIPAA requirements of his responsibilities when he underwent HIPAA training and understood that he should not access the health records of people beyond his job assignments, including Ginsburg’s data since she was not recommended to WRTC as a possible organ donor. Lori Brigham, founder, and former CEO of WRTC, stated that coordinators are not allowed to look at the charts of people who were not referred to WRTC as possible donors.
During his interview in 2019 concerning the unauthorized access, Russell initially said that his phone was stolen. He additionally claimed that he did not view Ginsburg’s files and mentioned his hospital login credentials were shared with other people. George Washington University Hospital’s chief data officer, Nathan Read, stated that the hospital terminated Russell’s access to health records in January 2019 when he became a suspect in the case. Russell requested the restoration of his access after a month, but the hospital denied the request. Prosecutors claimed that when Russell knew about the termination of his medical records access on February 10, 2019, he destroyed the evidence by reformatting his personal computer and stopping the investigation.
The FBI’s forensic investigation of Russell’s computer confirmed Russell’s visit to several posts on 4chan with conversations and conspiracy theories, such as the cover-up by Democratic politicians of Ginsburg’s death, together with content about antisemitic conspiracy thoughts. Although Russell said that his phone was stolen, the FBI traced the phone’s location to his house in Arlington, Virginia when accessing Ginsburg’s health data using his hospital credentials.
There are other suspects in the case besides Russell because a hospital employee looked up Ginsburg’s health records at about the same time as the data breach. That person was eliminated as a suspect because they were considered not technically literate enough to publish content on social media, though they were fired for unauthorized health record access.
Russell stated that he had not viewed the health data of patients who were not recommended as organ donors. Following the two-day trial, the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA charged Russell with unlawfully accessing Ginsburg’s health records and getting rid of evidence, yet was found not guilty of publishing those data to 4chan. In November 2024, Russell will be sentenced and will need to pay a sizeable fine and around 20 years imprisonment.