Vic Mellor Turns to AI for Crafting His Cuba Communication Strategy

Republican congressional candidate for Rhode Island, Vic Mellor, has admitted that his communication strategy concerning Cuba, submitted to the Department of Justice, was crafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence.

"We simply inputted something into AI," Mellor remarked during an interview with the Washington Examiner on October 12, with the piece being published three days later.

This revelation adds another layer to Mellor's situation. He registered on June 16 with the Department of Justice's FARA Registration Unit as an agent for the General Directorate of Personal Security under Cuba's Ministry of the Interior (MININT), the regime's body responsible for protecting Raúl Castro and other Communist Party leaders.

The Cuban official listed in FARA file number 7740 as Mellor's contact is Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Raúl Castro's grandson, also referred to as "El Cangrejo."

Mellor, however, maintains that the registration does not indicate any actual work for the Cuban regime. "I've had no contact with anyone from the Cuban government since I left," he asserted in the October interview.

He explained that his registration was a legal precaution due to his longstanding association with retired General Michael T. Flynn. "I registered to cover myself for the years I worked with General Flynn," he stated. His lawyer, Jesse R. Binnall, who co-signed the registration, advised that "it wouldn't hurt to do it."

The informational documents accompanying the registration include two proposals. The first, titled "Partner with Cuba Engagement Brief," suggests a four-stage social media campaign using the hashtag #PartnerWithCuba, featuring posts in both English and Spanish and a symbolic video of a flower growing through concrete.

The document stipulates that, as a condition for launching, there must be a Cuban contact with veto power over content within 48 hours.

The second proposal, "How We Respond," is a nine-page manual for the @CubanConversation account, containing draft responses to actual posts by Cuban-American congress members.

The document explicitly advises against using terms like "regime," "dictator," or "failed state" when responding on social media. Both materials are labeled as proposals or teaching samples, not executed campaigns.

Mellor's registration Exhibit B states that there is no "formal agreement or understanding," that Mellor neither received nor disbursed any funds, and that the relationship began on May 29, 2026.

This information is crucial for assessing the true scope of the registration: a FARA registration is not a crime nor proof of espionage.

Mellor made two trips to Havana in the spring of 2026, where he met with Rodríguez Castro during two dinners totaling four and a half hours, as he reported at the time. Following those meetings, he told AFP that "Raúl’s vision for the future is very promising."

The State Department clarified that Mellor was not authorized to speak on behalf of the U.S. government.

In a televised interview in Rhode Island aired weeks after the registration, Mellor denied being a Cuban agent: "Absolutely not," he stated, adding that he acted "on my own and at my own expense."

His Democratic opponent, incumbent Representative Seth Magaziner, responded by saying, "A registered agent of a foreign dictatorship should not represent Rhode Island in Congress, period."

Mellor has indicated he would withdraw the FARA registration if elected in November, as federal law prohibits Congress members from being registered as agents of foreign governments.