The infamous CEO of a failed hospital system is suing an entire Senate committee after being held in contempt of Congress, with civil and criminal charges unanimously approved by the full Senate last week.
In a federal lawsuit filed Monday, Steward CEO Ralph de la Torre claimed the senators “bulldozed over [his] constitutional rights” as they tried to “pillory and crucify him as a loathsome criminal” in a “televised circus.”
The Senate committee—the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), led by Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—issued a rare subpoena to de la Torre in July, compelling him to testify before the lawmakers. They sought to question the CEO on the deterioration of his hospital system, which previously included more than 30 hospitals across eight states. Steward filed for bankruptcy in May.
Imperiled patients
The committee alleges that de la Torre and Steward executives reaped millions in personal profits by hollowing out the health care facilities, even selling the land out from under them. The mismanagement left them so financially burdened that one doctor in a Steward-owned hospital in Louisiana said they were forced to perform “third-world medicine.” A lawmaker in that state who investigated the conditions at the hospital described Steward executives as “health care terrorists.”
Further, the financial strain on the hospitals is alleged to have led to the preventable deaths of 15 patients and put more than 2,000 other patients in “immediate peril.” As hospitals cut services, closed wards, or shuttered entirely, hundreds of health care workers were laid off, and communities were left without access to care. Nurses who remained in faltering facilities testified of harrowing conditions, including running out of basic supplies like beds. In one Massachusetts hospital, nurses were forced to place the remains of newborns in cardboard shipping boxes because Steward failed to pay a vendor for bereavement boxes.
Meanwhile, records indicate de la Torre and his companies were paid at least $250 million in recent years and he bought a 190-foot yacht for $40 million. Steward also owned two private jets collectively worth $95 million.
While de la Torre initially agreed to testify before the committee at the September 12 hearing, the wealthy CEO backed out the week beforehand. He claimed that a federal court order linked to the bankruptcy case prevented him from speaking on the matter; additionally, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.
The HELP committee rejected de la Torre’s arguments, saying there were still relevant topics he could safely discuss without violating the order and that his Fifth Amendment rights did not permit him to refuse to appear before Congress when summoned by a subpoena. Still, the CEO was a no-show, and the Senate moved forward with the contempt charges.
“Not the way this works”
In the lawsuit filed today, de la Torre argues that the senators are attempting to punish him for invoking his Constitutional rights and that the hearing “was simply a device for the Committee to attack [him] and try to publicly humiliate and condemn him.”
The suit describes de la Torre as having a “distinguished career, bedecked by numerous accomplishments,” while accusing the senators of painting him as “a villain and scapegoat[ing] him for the company’s problems, even those caused by systemic deficiencies in Massachusetts’ health care system.” If he had appeared at the Congressional hearing, he would not have been able to defend himself from the personal attacks without being forced to abandon his Constitutional rights, the suit argues.
“Indeed, the Committee made it abundantly clear that they would put Dr. de la Torre’s invocation [of the Fifth Amendment] itself at the heart of their televised circus and paint him as guilty for the sin of remaining silent in the face of these assaults on his character and integrity,” the suit reads.
De la Torre seeks to have the federal court quash the Senate committee’s subpoena, enjoin both contempt charges, and declare that the Senate committee violated his Fifth Amendment rights.
Outside lawyers are skeptical that will occur. The lawsuit is a “Hail Mary play,” according to Stan M. Brand, an attorney who represented former Trump White House official Peter Navarro in a contempt of Congress case. De la Torre’s case “has very little chance of succeeding—I would say no chance of succeeding,” Brand told the Boston Globe.
“Every time that someone has tried to sue the House or Senate directly to challenge a congressional subpoena, the courts have said, ‘That that’s not the way this works,’” Brand said.