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A federal trial gaining national recognition is underway for a Utah plastic surgeon who is accused of throwing away thousands of COVID-19 vaccinations after handing out false COVID vaccination cards.

Michael Kirk Moore, Jr., his business, the Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah, located at 7535 Union Park Avenue in Midvale, and his neighbor, Kristin Jackson Andersen, are accused of conducting a scheme in which they sold 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.

In April, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted on X, saying, “Dr. Moore deserves a medal for his courage and his commitment to healing!”

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,” she posted on X.

Dozens of people gathered outside the courthouse Monday in support of Moore, including Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz. Moore addressed the crowd and said it " warms my heart" to see supporters gathering in his support.

Moore, his company and Andersen were indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2023. The defendants face 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. He faces up to 35 years in jail.

Moore also faces a charge of destruction of evidence for allegedly ordering his former office manager, Kari Dee Burgoyne, to destroy unused vaccines after he was indicted so it couldn’t be used against him in court, prosecutors allege in a brief filed before the trial.

“This case is about a plastic surgeon who volunteered and signed up to help a federal vaccine program. But his real plan was sabotage,” prosecutor Sachiko Jepson told jurors. All rows of seats in the courtroom were full as the prosecution and defense gave opening arguments for the case on Wednesday.

Prosecutors argued the case is not about motive, as it doesn’t hinge on the opinions of vaccine efficacy or the morality of government mandates during a pandemic. Instead, it’s 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.

In May 2021, Moore signed a CDC vaccination program provider agreement so that he could receive COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination record cards, enrolling the Plastic Surgery Institute in the CDC’s vaccination program, prosecutors said.

“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,” Jepson said.

Moore and his business “destroyed 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.

Additionally, the business gave saline shots to children in order “to trick them into thinking they had received a vaccine,” the charges state.

Prosecutors say 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 said.

As a cosmetic surgery clinic that had never administered vaccines in the past, Moore did not need to become a provider and entered the agreement voluntarily, Jepson said.

He then “called the shots from on top” while “hiding behind his staff” — instructing his employees to fill out custom falsified vaccination cards for patients, effectively turning his company into “a mill for falsified vaccination record cards and falsified medical records,” she said.

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.

Instead of aiding the CDC program by providing vaccines to individuals, Moore “obstructed the program, he wasted thousands of vaccines, he lied and he tried to cover it up,” Jepson said.

Defense attorney Kathryn Neal Nester argued 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.”

Nester claimed that the state health department was informed about Moore distributing cards without vaccinations just a month after he began the practice, and the CDC was notified of his actions; however, he continued to administer vaccines for eight more months.

“Clearly, the CDC did not have a problem with what was going on,” Nester said.

The defense also argued that the vaccines and vaccination cards can no longer be considered federal government property because providers are given autonomy over the supplies, so Moore cannot be found guilty of destroying federal property, as the vaccines were not federal property.

In regards to the destruction of evidence charge, Nester said evidence in the trial will show his decision to destroy the unused vaccines had “zero to do” with the trial.

“Filling out (the cards) with false information was dishonest, it surely was, but it wasn’t a federal crime,” Nester said

Initially, two of Moore’s employees were also indicted on charges related to the fraud conspiracy. Burgoyne’s alleged role in the conspiracy included falsely reporting vaccinations to the Utah Statewide Immunization Information System and Sandra Flores was accused of distributing falsified vaccine cards and administering saline shots to minors.

Both women have accepted a plea deal or diversion agreement with the court. Prosecutors will have the women testify during the trial about their roles at the Plastic Surgery Institute.