Acting U.S. Attorney for Nevada Sigal Chattah and conservative lawyer Joey Gilbert are being sued by a woman accusing them of inadequate legal representation in a case surrounding the death of her father from COVID-19.

In late 2022, Chattah and Gilbert filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a Northern Nevada hospital for allegedly administering the COVID-19 treatment drug Remdesivir, which they said resulted in a man’s death from the virus. It was the first such lawsuit in the U.S., and the two touted their efforts on social media — Gilbert said that “a reckoning is coming,” while Chattah wrote that “They knew the science. They lied. They killed people. No mercy. No amnesty.”

However, according to a May lawsuit filed in Clark County by Melissa Dillon, the daughter of the man who died of the virus, Remdesivir was never administered to her father — and had Chattah and Gilbert done their due diligence when reviewing medical records, they would have known that before filing the lawsuit, which was dismissed in 2023. It also said the lawyers provided faulty representation by relying on an affidavit from Gilbert’s father, a doctor with no background in infectious diseases who stated Remdesivir caused the death of Dillon’s father.

“She was led to believe that her father was murdered for personal greed and profit by the healthcare industry, which was a lie,” the May lawsuit said. “[Gilbert and Chattah] desired to publicize their alleged crusade against medical professionals they claimed were ‘pure evil’ for fame and notoriety with the public.”

Gilbert did not respond to a request for comment. Chattah declined to comment. Her lawyer, Joseph Garin, said in a statement that they “have full confidence in the legal process and trust that the appropriate resolution will be reached through the judicial system.”

The lawsuit, which has not been previously reported, is particularly notable because it includes Chattah, Nevada’s top federal law enforcement official whose term was recently extended by President Donald Trump. Chattah and Gilbert are longtime Trump supporters, with Gilbert coming second in a GOP primary for governor in 2022. Both have frequently espoused conspiracy theories about the pandemic.

In the suit, which is set for a hearing at the end of the month, Dillon also claims Chattah and Gilbert were unaware of a one-year statute of limitations — which was the reason the case was dismissed in 2023 — made several factual errors in the initial complaint and were unwilling to file an appeal because they determined the hospital might have been immune from prosecution in the first place.

Dillon accuses the lawyers of professional negligence, legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty and asks for damages of at least $60,000 and a jury trial.

So far, only Chattah has filed a motion to dismiss the case. That motion states that the accusations of legal malpractice do not hold merit because Dillon would not have achieved a more favorable outcome with better representation.

Additionally, Chattah’s response seeks to distance herself from the case, arguing that her representation of Dillon did not begin until after the statute of limitations had already expired. She provided a timeline stating that Gilbert was the one initially involved in the lawsuit and that her participation began “well after the theory of the case had already been discussed.”

Dillon claims Chattah was involved in the drafting of the lawsuit and cites January 2023 correspondence from Gilbert that Chattah was “driving the strategy and largely responsible for all the litigation decisions.”

The Remdesivir dispute

The medical malpractice lawsuit filed by Gilbert and Chattah alleged Dillon’s father was administered Remdesivir despite his family’s objections. The drug is an injection approved to treat the virus, but has been the subject of baseless accusations of killing patients.

The suit relied heavily on an affidavit from Gilbert’s father, Dr. Warren Gilbert, a critic of Remdesivir. He said he tried to treat Dillon’s father with hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and ivermectin, which he called “the cornerstones of treatment” for COVID-19. The medications have been touted by Trump and other conservatives, but medical experts have said they are not effective against the virus.

Warren Gilbert’s affidavit stated “it is also my expert opinion to a reasonable degree of medical probability” that the administering of Remdesivir caused the death of Dillon’s father, despite providing no evidence or specifics. 

“Rather than retain a proper expert in the matter, the Attorney Defendants retained Gilbert's father, Dr. Gilbert, who held the same beliefs related to Remdesivir, HCQ, Ivermectin, and Covid-19,” the lawsuit said.

But the latest lawsuit says Dillon found out in February from an infectious disease expert that Remdesivir was never given to her father and his treatment “did not fall below the standard of care.”

“A competent review by a trained professional of the medical file would have revealed that Remdesivir was never administered,” the lawsuit said.