U.S. senators plan Thursday to consider the next major step toward forcing Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre to discuss the company's bankruptcy with lawmakers.
The Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee will hold a livestreamed meeting in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, when members will consider a pair of contempt resolutions aimed at de la Torre.
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The panel for months has been trying to get de la Torre to testify at a hearing, and he declined again last week despite a subpoena. U.S. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts said it was the committee's first subpoena since 1981.
One of the resolutions on Thursday's agenda would instruct the U.S. Senate Legal Counsel to file a civil suit seeking to require de la Torre's participation, and the other would refer the matter to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia for criminal prosecution over failure to comply with a subpoena, according to Markey's office.
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"Contempt means that if he continues to refuse to appear before the committee, we will not stop until he answers for what he has done or is put behind bars," Markey said earlier this month.
The embattled CEO's team has said it would be "inappropriate" for de la Torre to testify about Steward's bankruptcy while proceedings continue. A judge approved the sale of six Steward hospitals in Massachusetts, but the deals do not need to be closed until the end of the month.
An attorney for de la Torre said in a new letter to senators Wednesday that he "lacks the authority to speak on behalf of Steward with respect to the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings and he is prohibited by a federal court order from doing so." The letter also alleged that senators sought not to gather facts, "but instead [hold] a pseudo-criminal proceeding with the goal of convicting Dr. de la Torre in a court of public opinion."
"Dr. de la Torre cannot be permitted to provide sworn testimony at this time, given that the Hearing was seemingly designed as a vehicle to violate Dr. de la Torre' constitutional rights, including his Fifth Amendment rights. The U.S. Constitution affords Dr. de la Torre inalienable rights against being compelled by the government to provide sworn testimony that is specifically (yet baselessly) sought to frame Dr. de la Torre as a criminal scapegoat for the systemic failures in Massachusetts' health care system," attorney Alexander Merton wrote. "Accordingly, on the advice of counsel, Dr. de la Torre invokes his procedural and substantive rights under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, including the privilege to refrain from testifying at the Committee's Hearing."
