Leslie Manookian is the founder and president of Health Freedom Defense Fund, a nonprofit that litigates against medical mandates. A former Goldman Sachs executive and documentary filmmaker, she advocates for bodily autonomy and informed consent.
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Leslie Manookian is the founder and president of Health Freedom Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting health freedoms through education, advocacy, and strategic litigation. Under her leadership, HFDF has achieved landmark legal victories, including successfully challenging the federal travel mask mandate and winning cases against major corporations like Disney and Nike over vaccine mandate discrimination.
Before turning to health freedom advocacy, Manookian had a distinguished career in finance. She worked at Goldman Sachs in New York and served as Director of Alliance Capital in London, where she managed European Growth Portfolio Management and Research businesses. Her transition from Wall Street to health advocacy came after personal experiences led her to question pharmaceutical industry practices and public health policies.
Manookian is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker, best known for producing The Greater Good, a film exploring vaccine safety and policy debates. She is a qualified homeopath and holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, a BA from Middlebury College, and an M.L.C. Hom from Lakeland College of Homeopathy.
She serves on the boards of the Weston A. Price Foundation and Health Freedom Idaho, and has been actively involved in legislative efforts to protect medical freedom. Originally from Idaho, she continues to reside in the state while leading national litigation efforts.
Manookian has appeared on the Kim Monson Show over 15 times since 2021, providing regular updates on HFDF's legal battles and discussing broader issues of bodily autonomy, constitutional rights, and government overreach in health policy.
Daniel Turner of Power the Future warns renewable energy is costly and cyber-vulnerable. Leslie Manookian from Health Freedom Defense Fund discusses a pivotal legal decision. Dr. Morrell of Colorado Principled Physicians discusses concerns about the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.
“Safe and effective for what? And then they wrote that CDC doesn't deserve, like they're not just going to take CDC at its word. CDC does not just deserve deference just because it's CDC.”
Dr. Brian Joondeph discusses his article on battleground state polls. Leslie Manookian addresses the World Health Assembly and HFDF court cases. Bill Jack runs for Colorado House District 45.
“What happened was millions of people all over the world have been standing up and pressuring their public servants, the elected officials in their nations, to push back. And you know what? That's what happened. Different countries were saying that we weren't going to allow this.”
“The World Health Organization has been using the COVID crisis, debacle, whatever you want to use for it, as an opportunity to try and argue for comprehensive powers to identify and dictate when there's a pandemic inside of all the member nation countries. Just dictate when there's a pandemic, dictate what the response will be, basically intervene into the domestic affairs of nations, violate the sovereignty of those nations.”
“Disney was just counting on, they were essentially deferring to more senior people at Disney who didn't want her to be accommodated. That's what was going on. Senior executives did not want her to be accommodated. And so they were basically giving her the business illegally, even though they knew this.”
Jay Davidson on ideas as the most powerful for, Leslie Manookian on health freedom legal victories. December 15, 2023.
“Never give your power away, because once you do, they can use it against you. So don't comply.”
“I felt, Kim, like someone had kicked me in the gut. I couldn't believe it, because it was just such a brazen admission that he knew that they would kill people, but that they would still make a lot of money, and we should be reassured by that.”
Scott Powell on Orwell's warnings, Leslie Manookian on LAUSD mandate victory, school board candidates on academics. November 2, 2023.
“I fully embrace Patrick Henry's very famous line, which is live free or die, because if you give someone the power to use any kind of power over you, they will do so. And so I oppose all mandates.”
Wade Miller on government shutdown battle, Maurice Emmer on open primaries lawsuit, Leslie Manookian on lausd vaccine mandate lawsuit. September 26, 2023.
“Now, I contend and HFDF contends that no one has the right to tell you what to put in your body full stop.”
“The judges eviscerated, literally skewered the attorney for the Los Angeles Unified School District. I mean, I have never seen anything quite like it. They described LAUSD. They said they were shocked. They said they were floored by the fact that the Los Angeles Unified School District still has a vaccine mandate in place.”
William Perry Pendley, Leslie Manookian, Scott Bottoms. March 2, 2023.
“I 100% stand for informed consent, which means that you have the right to bodily autonomy and to make all decisions about what you put into your body free of coercion, threat, bullying, anything.”
“If you look at January 2022 alone, so only the month of January of 2022, there were 89 reported deaths in athletes in the United States. So compare that to a whole year of 69 in general.”
Colorado Representative Ryan Armagost, Task Force Freedom's Cain Remaski and Lauren Jennings, and health freedom advocate Leslie Manookian join Kim on February 2, 2023.
“This fight isn't about masks on planes. It's about whether unelected bureaucrats can dictate what we put in our bodies and how we live our lives. They're playing long ball, and we need to understand this is just Act One.”
Ted Misha explains how regulations bypass Congress, Leslie Manookian exposes the G20 Bali Declaration's digital surveillance agenda. December 22, 2022.
“They want to give every single human being on the planet a QR code, and they want to connect that to your digital vaccine passport. And if you don't have that, you will not be able to travel.”
Kim Monson examines government overreach: school funding, green energy mandates, and vaccine discrimination. August 29, 2022.
“We have moved over. We've crossed over the line. We are no longer, in my view, a free society. We have shifted over into an authoritarian type of a model and a marriage between the state and the corporations, which is what Mussolini defined as fascism.”
Allen Thomas explores natural human inclination toward liberty, Mary Alpers on hope, and Leslie Manookian exposes FDA failures. July 15, 2022.
“No childhood vaccine on the schedule today has ever been tested against a placebo, none. And federal health officials refused to do a study comparing the health outcomes of unvaccinated children to vaccinated children.”
Health Freedom Defense Fund wins CDC mask mandate case; Dr. Jill Vecchio analyzes the Great Reset agenda. April 21, 2022.
“If they can compel you to cover your two and only airways, something that we know science shows doesn't work, then what else can they force you to do in order to serve the public good? There are many other things that they could be forcing people to do if we accept this, if this stands.”
Leslie Manookian and Allen Thomas discuss health freedom and principled living on September 27, 2021.
“And if people just hold the line, we will win. We will cripple their businesses who are trying to do this.”
“I always say liberty comes with duty and it's not easy, right? Freedom isn't free. It doesn't just sit there. It's something we have to stand up and defend.”