Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has said he cannot vote in the upcoming Los Angeles mayoral election because a judge ruled he has “no legal residence.”

Kennedy was appearing at an event in the California city with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner Tuesday when he was asked by a reporter about the upcoming vote, which is being contested by incumbent Karen Bass and councilor Nithya Raman, both Democrats.

The secretary said: “I’m in a very strange position, because when I ran for president, the Democratic Party sued me first to get me off the ballot in 12 states, including New York and California.

“And then when I, um, when I endorsed President Trump, they sued me to keep me on the ballot in those same states.

“And in the course of one of those lawsuits, it was declared that I had no legal residence, and so it’s a – I’m in a dilemma where I literally have no state where I can legally vote right now.

“I’m probably the only person in the country who’s a legal citizen who has that dilemma, but I’m still trying to figure it out before the next election.”

Kennedy was referring to a ruling by New York Judge Christina Ryba, who found that the claim he had made on nominating papers during his 2024 campaign that he resided in Katonah, Westchester County, was “a sham.”

The candidate had insisted he was renting a room in the town from a friend and intended to return permanently from California, where he had moved in 2014.

Judge Ryba said the idea of his relocating to the room was “highly improbable, if not preposterous” given its small size and found that his real permanent address was in L.A. Kennedy appealed but was unsuccessful.

A watchdog group, Accountability.US, subsequently complained that he had voted in the Empire State using the Katonah address in the 2024 election in spite of the judge’s ruling, accusing him of voter fraud.

Formerly an environmental lawyer, the black sheep of the fabled Kennedy clan found new prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic by promoting anti-vaccine sentiment and conspiracy theories about public health institutions, despite having no background in medical science.

He translated his newfound popularity into an independent presidential campaign, which he suspended after the attack on President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in order to throw his support behind the Republican.

Subsequently confirmed as Trump’s choice to lead HHS, Kennedy has become almost as well known for his bizarre personal anecdotes as for his singular political views.

While still a candidate, it emerged that he had once claimed in divorce proceedings that a parasitic worm had devoured part of his brain, a story that turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg.

He subsequently admitted to stashing the carcass of a dead bear cub in Central Park, just one of a series of gory encounters with deceased wildlife he was prepared to admit to – others included his having once beheaded a beached whale with a chainsaw on a family vacation and cut off the genitals of a roadkill racoon to “study them later.”

Kennedy has been outspoken in his disapproval of Trump’s McDonald’s-heavy diet while promoting the virtue of fermented foodstuffs and steak, telling Fox News he has been known to tuck into a plate of steak and sauerkraut as early as 6:30 a.m.

He posted a fitness video earlier this year in which he encouraged Americans to “get active” and could be seen working out shirtless, taking saunas and drinking whole milk in a bathtub with MAGA rapper Kid Rock.

Under his leadership, HHS has been accused of anti-vaxx messaging, pressuring top scientists and, most recently, endangering children by splitting up the MMR shot.