Philip Esformes, the owner of a Florida nursing home, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of health-care fraud, but President Donald Trump commuted his sentence.
The situation is unique because of the outrageous actions of the prosecutors.
The Justice Department's disregard of President Trump's clemency order is motivated by acrimony towards him.
He said the former president's decision to let Esformes out of prison was a vendetta against him.
The prosecution is doing unprecedented things against Mr. Esformes. He is a casualty of partisan games.
The Justice Department and the Miami U.S. Attorney's Office did not respond to questions about those claims.
Esformes was found guilty of 20 other crimes, but jurors at his Florida federal court trial were unable to agree on six criminal counts.
The effort is not legal as it flies in the face of what they argue was Trump's intent to put an end to the case by commutation.
Trump didn't reply to the request.
The case should be thrown out because of prosecutorial malfeasance, according to Esformes' appeal action.
The defense team will have a difficult time winning its argument against a re trial because of Trump's clemency.
There is no federal case law precedent that says prosecutors can't try to get a new trial for someone who has had their sentence commuted for a conviction.
Federal charges against defendants for the same conduct that was the subject of a presidential pardon are not allowed.
The President's commutation order doesn't affect any of the counts that the jury failed to reach a verdict.
The president's commutation order is limited to the counts of conviction
If President Trump intended to grant Esformes a pardon or if he intended to grant Esformes clemency on the hung counts, he would have communicated that in the clemency warrant.
President Trump pardoned 15 people on the same day he commuted Esformes's prison sentence.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower to meet with New York Attorney General Letitia James for a civil investigation on August 10, 2022 in New York City.Esformes was one of the dozens of people to receive executive clemency, which included pardons and sentence commutations, from Trump in his last months in office. When compared to other one-term presidents, Trump was very generous with his clemencies.
Esformes was indicted by the Justice Department, which claimed he was at the top of the largest health-care fraud scheme ever prosecuted. According to the department, the scheme spanned two decades and involved an estimated $1.3 billion in losses as a result of fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid, the federal health insurance programs that cover older and low-income Americans.
According to the indictment, Esformes bought a $360,000 Greubel Forsey watch, a $1.6 million Ferrari Aperta automobile, and paid for female escort services.
Esformes bribed the University of Pennsylvania men's basketball coach to get his son admitted to the Wharton School of Business, prosecutors said.
Allen was sentenced to four years of supervised release and ordered to pay a fine of more than $200,000 after pleading guilty to a single count of money-laundering.
Allen, who is currently an assistant coach on the NBA's Detroit Pistons, in 2020 was hit by the National Collegiate Athletic Association with a 15-year show-cause penalty, which in most cases bars coaches from being hired by a college.
Laura Janke, a former assistant women's soccer coach at the University of Southern California, pleaded guilty as part of a national college admissions scheme. The scheme was exposed by the federal government.
William “Rick” Singer leaves the federal courthouse after facing charges in a nationwide college admissions cheating scheme in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., March 12, 2019.A prosecutor said at her plea hearing that Esformes' daughter was one of the students that Janke helped to get into USC. Esformes paid $400,000 to a foundation controlled by Singer, which was used to dole out bribes to get students admitted to college.
After Esformes was convicted in the health-care fraud case, the deputy special agent in charge of the FBI's Miami Field Office said, "Philip Esformes is."
Stemen said, "Esformes cycle patients through his facilities in poor condition where they received inadequate or unnecessary treatment, then improper billing Medicare and Medicaid."
He bribed doctors and regulators to advance his crimes.
Judge Robert Scola said that the length and scope of the criminal conduct of Esformes was "seemingly unparalleled in our community, if not our country."
On December 22, 2020, Trump commuted Esformes' sentence.
The part of the sentence that called for Esformes to serve three years of supervised release was left intact by Trump. Esformes was ordered to pay $38 million in forfeiture judgement.
The commutation was supported by the U.S. Attorneys General, according to a statement by Trump's press secretary.
Esformes is in declining health, she said.
The lawyers for Esformes said that the terms of the clemency had been approved by the Attorney General.
McEnany pointed out that Meese and Mukasey, along with two other former attorneys general, John Ashcroft andAlberto Gonzalez, former FBI Director and federal judge Louis Freeh, and other former top Justice Department officials had filed a legal brief in support of the dismissal of Esform
Rules forbid prosecutors from using communications between defendants and their lawyers as evidence.
According to the brief, the government eviscerated the defendants attorney-client privilege and work-product protection. Dismissal is the only way to correct pervasive violations.
The trial judge in Esformes' case denied a motion to dismiss the charges and disqualify the prosecution team, according to prosecutors.
The prosecutors wrote in the brief that the forms failed to show prejudice that would justify dismissal ordisqualification. Esformes has not been able to prove that he was prejudiced by the government's mistakes.
After the commutation of Esformes' sentence, The New York Times published an article detailing the role of the Aleph Institute, a Jewish humanitarian non-profit group that supports prisoners' rights.
Morris is a Rabbi.
The Times reported that the Esformes family donated to the movement of Hasidic Jews known as Chabad-Lubavitch. He was a senior White House advisor.
Charles Kushner and Jared Kushner attend an event at Lord & Taylor on March 28, 2012 in New York City.Trump pardoned Charles, who was sentenced to two years in prison in 2004 after pleading guilty to tax evasion, witness tampering and making unlawful campaign contributions.
Charles Kushner tried to intimidate his brother-in-law from testifying against him by hiring a sex worker to lure him into a sexual relationship. The videotape was sent to the man's wife by Charles.
The Justice Department said in a 2006 press release that Philip and his father had paid more than 15 million dollars to settle civil health care fraud claims.
According to The Chicago Tribune, Philip and Morris Esformes agreed to pay $5 million to the US government to settle claims that they took kickbacks related to the sale of a pharmacy.
After Philip Esformes was released from prison as a result of Trump's commutation, federal prosecutors in Miami told a judge they intended to re-try him on the counts where jurors had not reached a verdict.
The release bond for Esformes was co-signed by his father and children.
His legal team was angry at the decision to retry Esformes.
Esformes' lawyers said in an appeals court brief that the text and context of the grant of clemency show an intent to end the prosecution and incarceration of Esformes.
The double-jeopardy clause of the Constitution prevented a re-trial because the judge factored in conduct that was the basis for the major criminal count on which jurors deadlocked, according to those attorneys.
There can't be a re trial of Philip Esformes.
The unfairness of retrying him is underscored by the fact that prosecutors used information against Esformes that was protected by attorney-client privilege.
The president granted clemency to Mr. Esformes and the prosecutors should not be allowed to try the case again.
"Mr. Esformes always maintained his innocence, so why should the public feel sympathy for him?"
The new Biden Justice Department wants to reverse the clemency granted by the president.
When prosecutors are more interested in career advancement and political games, the public should be worried.
That situation puts us all in danger.
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