The White House’s lawyers are launching a lawsuit against doctors at Johns Hopkins University and its affiliated hospitals to recover $7.5 million for work that was never performed and that didn’t benefit the president.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Maryland, seeks more than $25 million in punitive damages and attorney fees, the Associated Press has learned.
A lawyer for Dr. John C. Thomas, president of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Foundation, declined to comment.
The White Street Institute, which represents the hospitals, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
John Hopkins is also suing to recover its fees and damages.
The president’s team has said that Thomas had performed some work for him without any medical justification.
The case has been assigned to Judge Jeffrey N. Lubet, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
A spokesperson for the White House said Lubet will decide whether to hear the lawsuit or take it to the U,D.C., Superior Court.
Johns Hopkins’ lawsuit seeks $15,000 for each day of work Thomas performed for the president’s family and for others.
He was named president of Johns Hopkins on April 3, 2017.
The two hospitals, which each have a capacity of roughly 150,000 patients, did some work on behalf of the president, according to the lawsuit.
The suit also claims that Thomas “deliberately failed to disclose that he had performed work that he knew or should have known was improper or potentially illegal.”
The hospital was aware of his “failure to disclose” for years, the suit says.
The hospital also did work that “did not benefit the President or any other patient.”
The lawsuit seeks to recover money for the “wages of other physicians, nurses, therapists, medical assistants, other medical professionals, and other persons.”
Thomas, in a statement, said that he has “fully cooperated with the Office of Government Ethics and all appropriate federal agencies” and is “committed to treating my patients and patients’ families fairly and impartially.”
“I will continue to fully cooperate with the Government Ethics Commission and other appropriate federal authorities in this matter,” he added.
The Johns Hopkins lawsuit comes on the heels of a report released in May that revealed that the White Houses Office of Special Counsel had investigated about 80 cases involving alleged mismanagement and misconduct by Thomas, including the alleged theft of $2 million from his own hospital.
The OSC has said the cases are “complex, complex, and complex” and have involved patients who have received no benefit from the work performed by Thomas.