Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of former president John F. Kennedy, wrote to senators that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a predator who lied and cheated his way through life.

Kennedy claimed that she hadn’t denounced her cousin’s nomination before because she was the U.S. Ambassador to Australia, and she also did not want to criticize a member of her family publicly.

Caroline Kennedy, however, said that she felt an “obligation to speak out” as Kennedy Jr. is scheduled to appear this week before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP).

She stated that her cousin “lacks relevant government, medical, financial or management experience” that would qualify him to be the leader of the nation’s healthcare agencies, and added that “his personal qualities are even more concerning.”

“I have known Bobby my whole life; we grew up together. It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he is a predator,” she wrote in a letter to the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Finance and HELP committees.

I watched as his younger siblings and cousins followed him down the path of drug addiction. He had a drug-filled basement, garage, and dorm. He also enjoyed showing off his ability to blend baby mice and chickens in a blender for his hawks. She wrote that there was a “perverse sense of violence and despair” in many cases.

She acknowledged that people “can grow and change” and expressed admiration for his ability to pull himself out of “illness and disease,” referring to his bouts with addiction.

She said that Bobby’s siblings and cousins who he “encouraged down the path of drug abuse” suffered from addiction, illness, and death, while Bobby went on to lie, cheat, and misrepresent his life.

She accused him of making money through his “crusade” against vaccinations and warned that he would “keep his financial stake in an HPV vaccine lawsuit.”

“In other words, he is willing to enrich himself by refusing access to a vaccination that can prevent virtually all forms of cervical carcinoma and has been safely administered to millions of girls and boys.”

She accused her cousin, who was running for president at the time, of appropriating and destroying her father’s legacy to “promote his own failed campaign”.

“Unlike Bobby, I try not to speak for my father — but I am certain that he and my uncle Bobby, who gave their lives in public service, and my uncle Teddy, who devoted his Senate career to improving health care, would be disgusted,” she wrote.