COVID hero turned target: Maryland doc endures Biden lawfare that Trump vows to end

The fallout from former President Joe Biden's weaponized Department of Justice (DOJ) continues to wreak havoc on the lives of those it attempted to crush, even with a new administration calling the shots. 

"They did this before Trump was inaugurated. The wheels are in motion. It's very hard to stop that," Dr. Ron Elfenbein told Just The News. 

Elfenbein is an emergency medicine physician in Maryland who gained national recognition during the early COVID-19 pandemic. He worked to serve patients and his community, donating substantial personal protective equipment (PPE) and supplies at a critical time to states including Maryland, Delaware, New York and Connecticut. 

Elfenbein, who trained at Johns Hopkins and contracted for the United States Secret Service (USSS), earned widespread media attention for his contributions to the medical community during the pandemic, with appearances on outlets like CNN and CBS News. Prior to the government's turn against him, mainstream journalists frequently consulted him for updates and to reinforce the prevailing narrative. He received a personal commendation from Maryland’s Governor and was named Person of the Year by the state medical society. He also received a grant from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to help develop protocols for airway management in space.

Throughout his career, Elfenbein says he consistently chose principle over conformity, even when it required challenging “the science” during COVID-19 and against the administration’s preferences, which would ultimately put the DOJ's crosshairs on his back. 

The turn came when he publicly opposed the Biden administration’s policy in late 2021 to pause monoclonal antibody treatment (asserting that it would undermine Big Pharma funding), and after appearing on Fox News, he faced what he believes was retaliation from what he describes as a weaponized Department of Justice. 

Four months later, he was indicted on what he asserts are baseless healthcare fraud charges related to “upcoding,” with prosecutors allegedly failing to review the medical charts that form the basis of all coding decisions. 

According to Elfenbein, the counts, which stem from five coding instances, pertained to patients he never even saw; they were attended by physicians' assistants and nurse practitioners. He was the medical director at the time. 

Furthermore, Elfenbein was not the person at the practice who dealt with coding and submission of those charts and codes; it was his business partner. Elfenbein's partner just happened to be a sitting Republican state delegate in Maryland, and was never even contacted by the federal government's investigators.

Elfenbein told Just The News that the government's assertion was that the medical events were coded incorrectly, and even if that were the case, the difference in billing for each case was $30, totaling $150 over the five cases, for which Biden's DOJ was seeking 50 years in prison. 

After a grueling trial, Chief U.S. District Judge James Bredar acquitted him in a detailed 90-page opinion, ruling that the evidence was insufficient to prove Elfenbein’s coding interpretation unreasonable and that some evidence actually supported his understanding of the requirements.

Relentless prosecution drains his finances

Unfortunately, the Biden DOJ wasn't done with the punishing process. They appealed and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the acquittal, ordering a new trial in August.

Elfenbein has been drained financially, and warns that this could happen to anyone. "I'm nobody, right? I'm just a guy and I'm trying to do the right thing and I tried to step up. But this could be you. It's not just the Donald Trumps of the world that they go after." 

In addition to financial destruction, Elfenbein has endured other forms of punishment. He says he was debanked by American Express, removed from his USAA policy, his TSA pre-check was revoked, and he lost his ability to own a firearm. 

"The process is designed that way and they are relentless. They want to bankrupt you, and they know that they have more money than you do, so they will keep coming and coming and coming until you either plea or go to jail."

Amanda Head is the White House correspondent at Just The News. Follow her on X.