Cuban exile group Brigade 2506 divided over Trump’s freeing of notorious Florida doctor
Presidential clemency grants are often messy, but throw Miami politics into the mix and you can get a wholly unexpected stew of controversy.
In this case, exiting President Donald Trump’s decision to commute the 17-year sentence of a prominent but notorious South Florida eye doctor convicted of Medicare fraud has caused a rift in one of the oldest and proudest Cuban exile groups — Brigade 2506, comprised of veterans of the ill-fated 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro.
Among many voices cited by the White House to justify the release of Dr. Salomon Melgen was a letter signed by 10 members of Brigade 2506.
That letter, however, was a surprise to the group’s president, Juan (Johnny) Lopez de la Cruz, who told the Miami Herald it did not represent the official view of the organization — especially because Melgen was convicted of stealing from the Medicare program for the elderly.
“The Board of Directors of this Association firmly rejects the reported statements because the Brigade 2506 did not write nor submit said letter, nor would we ever consider preparing a clemency petition for an undeserving person who is unknown to us,” Lopez de la Cruz wrote in an email to the Herald. “Only our elected Board of Directors is authorized to speak for the Veterans Association-Brigade 2506.”
In an interview, Lopez said the brigade members who signed the Aug. 10, 2020, letter to Trump did not ask for or obtain the permission of the board or the entire organization. Lopez, a retired U.S. Army colonel, said he learned about the letter supporting the ophthalmologist, convicted of 67 counts of Medicare fraud that cost taxpayers tens of millions, when he read the Herald’s story.
“I regret those guys signed it, but that’s not the position of the brigade,” Lopez told the Herald Tuesday, pointing out the Bay of Pigs veterans’ organization has between 500 and 600 members. The group has deep conservative political roots but not every member sees eye to eye on every issue.
To draw a comparison, Lopez said that Brigade 2506 formally endorsed Trump over Joe Biden in November’s election, though a couple of members dissented and backed the Democrat.
But one of the brigade’s past presidents, who was the first signature on the letter supporting Melgen, said the 10 members didn’t need the board or full organization’s permission to write the letter to Trump.
“We can, as individuals, support the doctor,” Felix I. Rodriguez told the Herald Wednesday. “He has been very helpful to the brigade.”
Rodriguez, who worked as a CIA contractor following the Bay of Pigs invasion, said Melgen donated his talent and time to treating several members of the brigade with eye ailments and some of the members wanted to return the favor by supporting him for clemency.
“It’s very sad that [Lopez] has taken that position — it’s a personal thing,” Rodriguez said. “We were very careful to say we were members of the brigade. Our letter was not meant to represent the brigade as an organization.”
He said, for example, that the letterhead read “Members of Brigade 2506” and did not include the group’s official logo. He also said the first line in the letter indicated, “We, the undersigned, are members of the Brigade 2506, Cuban-Americans who fought for Cuban freedom in the Bay of Pigs in 1961.”
Rodriguez said there were also political reasons for supporting Melgen because he has been a close friend of Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, a stalwart supporter of U.S. policy opposing the late Fidel Castro and the Cuban government. U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, also backed Melgen’s clemency petition. His office did not return a request for comment about supporting Melgen.
Rodriguez, however, said it was “our idea” to write the letter to Trump, not the politicians.
“We believe that Dr. Melgen was maliciously prosecuted due to his close friendship to Cuban-American leaders, particularly Senator Robert Menendez, who vocally and vigorously opposed the Obama Administration’s dangerous ‘Iran Deal,’ and ‘Cuba normalization,’ ‘’ said the brigade members’ Aug. 10, 2020, letter.
“This case presents a compelling opportunity for you to exercise the extraordinary power of your office by granting a pardon or similar relief to Dr. Melgen,” the letter stated. “We know that you are a man of extraordinary compassion and justice.”
A Miami attorney who represented Melgen in his clemency effort said that the brigade’s current president, Lopez, was incorrect in his assessment of the brigade’s letter and how it was reported in the Herald.
“The clemency petition makes no reference to the brigade,” attorney Samuel Stern said. “Moreover, the letter of support ... demonstrates that the signatories were speaking on their own behalf and did not purport to represent the organization itself.”
According to a White House statement, Melgen’s clemency petition was supported by Menendez, Diaz-Balart, and numerous members of Brigade 2506, along with friends, family, and former employees and patients. “Numerous patients and friends testify to his generosity in treating all patients, especially those unable to pay or unable to afford healthcare insurance,” the statement said.
In April 2017, Melgen was convicted of stealing $73 million from Medicare by persuading elderly patients to undergo excruciating tests and treatments they didn’t need for diseases they didn’t have.
Melgen was found guilty of 67 counts, including healthcare fraud, submitting false claims and falsifying records in patients’ files. Prosecutors showed that between 2008 and 2013, he became the nation’s highest-paid Medicare doctor, building his practice by giving elderly patients unnecessary eye injections and laser blasts on their retinas.
In addition to prison time, Melgen was also ordered to pay $42.6 million in restitution to Medicare. That order still stands under Trump’s commutation, though his lawyer said he has repaid $25 million, including $11 million to the Medicare program.
Melgen, 66, was released from the Federal Correctional Institution in South Miami-Dade on Jan. 20, the day Trump left office.
Melgen, a native of the Dominican Republic who operated a lucrative ophthalmology practice in Palm Beach County, was convicted of Medicare fraud before he stood trial with Menendez in a separate corruption case that ended with a hung jury in New Jersey.
During the corruption trial, prosecutors accused Menendez of pressuring Medicare officials to change the agency’s billing practices after it concluded that Melgen overcharged the taxpayer-funded program while lavishing gifts on his friend for favors. But the federal jury was deadlocked on bribery and other counts, and prosecutors did not retry the physician and politician.
This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
