RFK Jr. Axes Top Aides in Huge Staff Shakeup

(Melissa Majchrzak/AP photo)

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has dismissed two of his top aides in a huge staff shakeup at the agency, ABC News reports.

Kennedy’s chief of staff, Heather Flick Melanson, and Hannah Anderson, his deputy chief of staff of policy, have both been fired according to the report.

The reason for the firings is unclear.

“Secretary Kennedy has made a leadership change within the Immediate Office of the Secretary,” an HHS spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News. “Effective immediately, Matt Buckham will serve as Acting Chief of Staff.”

The departures come several months after Kennedy’s top communications official stepped down just weeks into the job after it was revealed he clashed with the HHS boss over a measles outbreak plaguing Texas.

Thomas Corry, the assistant secretary of public affairs, who had only been on the job for two weeks, submitted his resignation in March after growing “uneasy” with Kennedy’s inaction to the deadly outbreak of measles in the Lone Star State, Politico reported at the time.