Judicial Watch Sues HHS for Records on Workplace Incident Involving Former Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Patent Attorney

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit on behalf of former patent attorney Regina Ciolek against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for records concerning a reported “workplace incident” at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (Regina Ciolek v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (No.1:25-cv-02764)).

Ciolek worked as associate intellectual property counsel at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard from December 2016 to July 2021, where she was responsible for managing intellectual property matters and patent law. The Broad Institute receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, a component of Health and Human Services. 

Ciolek has over 20 years of experience in intellectual property law, specializing in biotechnology and life sciences. She holds a juris doctorate degree from Suffolk University Law School and a master’s in biology from Brandeis University. 

Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the National Institutes of Health failed to respond to an April 16, 2025, request for: 

Copies of all records in NIH’s possession related to a workplace incident that occurred between December 2016 and present, where [Ciolek] was the victim. Specifically, [Ciolek] seek[s]:

1.     Any NIH reports, internal investigations, complaints, or communications (emails, memos, or reports) regarding this incident involving Sahand Hormoz, Nir Hacohen, and [Corri] Hale.

2.     Records of any disciplinary actions or safety measures taken as a result of the incident.

3.     Security reports or footage logs from NIH security personnel and/or Broad Institute personnel if they exist.

4.     Records and/or images, in any way relating to trafficked non-consensual pornography of the victim, [Ciolek].

The three individuals connected to the incident named in Judicial Watch’s complaint are:

Sahand Hormoz, an associate professor of systems biology at Harvard University and associate professor of data science at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, with affiliations to the Broad Institute. 

Nir Hacohen, a core institute member and the director of the Center for Cell Circuits at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is the director of cancer immunology at the Mass General Hospital Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research, the David P. Ryan Chair in Cancer Research at the Mass General Cancer Center, and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Cori (Corri) Hale, senior counsel at the Broad Institute and previously an attorney at Hale Law PC, which specializes in the defense of medical professionals and research scientists, criminal law and business disputes.

“It is ridiculous that our client must resort to suing the government to obtain information that she is legally entitled to receive,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Judicial Watch’s lawsuits on behalf of clients challenging government actions are extensive.

Most recently, Judicial Watch announced that the U.S. Air Force will finally provide full military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran who was shot and killed inside the U.S. Capitol by then-Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd on January 6, 2021. Babbitt was the only official January 6 homicide victim. The Biden administration had previously denied Babbitt and her family these honors in retaliation for being at the U.S. Capitol that day. This decision came on the heels of a massive, nearly $5 million Trump administration settlement to her family for wrongful death and other claims against the U.S. Government. 

In July 2025, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled that Bucks County, Pennsylvania acted in bad faith in unlawfully suppressing public records concerning the county health department’s Covid-19 school guidance. The Commonwealth Court affirmed the trial court’s May 2023 award of sanctions against Bucks County in the amount of $3,000 to Judicial Watch client Megan Brock.

In January 2024, the City of San Francisco, in a 7-3 vote by the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco, authorized a settlement agreement in a taxpayer lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch against the City, agreeing to discontinue its discriminatory guaranteed-income program funded by taxpayer money in favor of transgender individuals with a preference for biological black and Latino men who identify as women. The agreement committed the city to pay $3,250 in attorney’s fees and costs and not to create a new guaranteed income program with the same eligibility criteria.

In January 2022, the City of Asheville, NC, settled Judicial Watch’s federal civil rights lawsuit, filed on behalf WNC Citizens for Equality Inc., after agreeing to remove all racially discriminatory provisions in a city-funded scholarship program. Additionally, the city also agreed to remove racially discriminatory eligibility provisions in a related program that provides grants to educators.

In December 2022, Judicial Watch won a court battle filed behalf of three California taxpayers against California’s quota requirements for corporate boards. Earlier that year, two California trial courts had found (here and here) unconstitutional state quota mandates for sex, race, ethnicity, and LGBT status. On December 1, 2022, the California Court of Appeal denied (here and here) two separate emergency requests by the California Secretary of State to lift the injunctions.

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