Dr. Oz to Appear On a Panel Moderated by Russell Brand — Who is Currently Facing Rape Charges in the UK

Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Photo

Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s Medicare and Medicaid administrator, is set to appear on a Tuesday panel moderated by actor Russell Brand — who is currently facing rape charges in the United Kingdom.

The Washington Post’s Dan Diamond highlighted the upcoming event in a Monday social media post, writing, “Russell Brand, who’s awaiting trial in London next month on rape and sexual assault charges, will moderate a panel at DC’s MAHA summit tomorrow on reforming a U.S. health agency.”

Along with Oz, the panel will feature Chris Klomp, the Department of Health and Human Services’ chief counselor.

As Diamond referenced, Brand’s appearance comes shortly before he is expected to stand trial in London. He has pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of indecent assault stemming from allegations by six women. The incidents in question occurred between 1999 and 2009.

British authorities began investigating Brand in 2023, and he was later charged and granted conditional bail. Brand has denied engaging in non-consensual sexual activity, declaring after the charges were announced in a video on social media, “I was a drug addict, a sex addict and an imbecile, but what I never was, was a rapist.”

He did, however, admit earlier this year that he had consensual sex with a 16-year-old girl when he was 30, describing the relationship as “exploitative” because of the age and power imbalance. In an interview with Megyn Kelly, Brand noted that the U.K. age of consent is 16 and said he was “a very different person” at the time.

Brand is not the only celebrity slated to appear at the second annual Make America Healthy Again summit, which will also feature boxer Mike Tyson and actress Cheryl Hines, the wife of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

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