He told the Senate Finance Committee that Susan Monarez told him she was not ‘trustworthy.’

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he fired Susan Monarez from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because she told him she was not “trustworthy.”

Kennedy’s comments came in response to questions from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) during a Thursday hearing before the Senate Finance Committee about the agency’s plans. Warren had asked the secretary why he decided earlier this month to abruptly fire Monarez, then the CDC’s director, who was confirmed by the Senate in lateJuly.

“I told her she had to resign because I asked her, ‘Are you a trustworthy person?’ and she said ‘No,’” Kennedy said.

Monarez wrote an opinion piece Thursday that, before she was fired, Kennedy asked her to “pre-approve” recommendations from a key panel of CDC advisers, which were chosen by Kennedy after he fired the committee’s entire membership.

“It is imperative that the panel’s recommendations aren’t rubber-stamped but instead are rigorously and scientifically reviewed before being accepted or rejected,” Monarez wrote.

In a statement, Monarez’s lawyers said that Kennedy’s claims are false and “patently ridiculous.”

“Dr. Monarez stands by what she said in her op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, would repeat it all under oath and continues to support the vision she outlined at her confirmation hearing that science will control her decisions,” wrote Mark S. Zaid and Abbe David Lowell.

It’s unclear whether Monarez will get to testify before Congress about her ouster. During the hearing, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he looks forward to Monarez coming before the HELP committee.

HELP Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) has not announced an investigation into her being fired.

Kennedy repeatedly denied he fired Monarez because she wouldn’t agree to pre-approve the advisory panel’s recommendations and accused her of lying. The panel is scheduled to meet in Atlanta on Sept. 18-19.

“If she wrote that I fired her because she refused to sign on in advance for the ACIP committee, no that’s not accurate,” Kennedy said. He said he asked her for “clarification” about a statement he says she made related to plans not to sign on to the panel’s recommendations.

“I told her I didn’t want her to have a rule that she’s not going to sign on to it,” Kennedy said.

Several news outlets, including POLITICO, have reported that Monarez was asked to rubber-stamp the panel’s recommendations. Kennedy also admitted to demanding that Monarez fire career CDC scientists.

Sophie Gardner, Politico