A Florida man who received a 20-year commute from President Donald J. Trump’s 20-year prison sentence for fraud in 2020 and who pleaded guilty to related crimes this year was arrested on Sunday in South Florida on domestic violence-related charges. It was done.
The man, Phillip Esforms, has been charged with two felonies and could face jail time and fines if convicted, according to a public records database maintained by Miami-Dade County. .
Esformes is at least the seventh person to be pardoned by Trump and given a second chance to face new charges, according to a New York Times analysis.
Esformes is also the third known recipient of a pardon from Trump who was charged with domestic violence-related crimes.
Relatives of the woman said late Saturday that Esformes verbally threatened a woman they described as his wife and another family member, and also broke a glass table.
Relatives said Esformes pushed a table toward a family member, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect the family.
Relatives said Esformes tried to break the woman’s cellphone to prevent her from calling police. The woman reportedly ran out of the house and called for help. There appear to be no injuries in this incident.
According to records accessible on the Miami-Dade County Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation website, he was arrested early Sunday morning, his 56th birthday, for crimes involving victim or witness tampering and property damage of more than $1,000. It is indicated that he was arrested on suspicion of mischief. . The website indicates the two charges are related to domestic violence, but provides no other details.
Miami-Dade County corrections officials indicated he was still in custody as of Monday morning.
Esformes owned more than 30 nursing homes and assisted living centers in the Miami area when he was indicted in 2016 in connection with a 20-year scheme involving an estimated $1.3 billion worth of fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid claims. Ta. The Justice Department calls it the largest health care fraud scheme ever prosecuted. He was convicted in 2019 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
His sentence ended abruptly in December 2020, and Trump commuted the remainder of Esformes’ sentence in his final days in office. In a statement announcing the commutation, the White House said Esformes had “deteriorated health” in prison and was “devoted to prayer and repentance.”
His path to reduction was emblematic of the unusual nature of presidential pardons, the most unilateral and unfettered power of the Oval Office. Mr. Trump largely circumvented the Justice Department’s system set up to identify and vet recipients of commutations, which reduce or eliminate prison sentences, and pardons, which erase conviction records.
Instead, Mr. Trump relied on endorsements from a relatively small number of allies and supporters.
Mr. Esformes’ reduction was not recommended by the Department of Justice. It was supported by influential figures and organizations in Mr. Trump’s world, including a Jewish nonprofit called the Aleph Institute, which promotes prisoners’ rights. The group worked with the White House and Mr. Trump’s allies on legislation that would overhaul commutation and sentencing laws. According to the Washington Post, lawyers working with the Aleph Institute worked with prominent figures in the conservative legal world, including two former U.S. attorneys general, Edwin Meese and Michael Mukasey, to He lobbied the White House to pardon Mr. Forms.
The Aleph Institute is also working with prominent defense attorney Alan M. Dershowitz, who said he recommended the organization seek a pardon for Esformes.
Dershowitz supported commuting sentences for two other recipients facing new charges. Jonathan Brown pleaded not guilty in August to assaulting his wife and punching his 75-year-old stepfather in the head. And Eliyahu Weinstein is scheduled to go on trial next month on charges that he defrauded dozens of employees out of $35 million.
Mr. Dershowitz said in an interview Monday that he did not regret advocating for a pardon under Mr. Trump. He acknowledged that the process under Trump was “probably too personal” and “a little too permissive,” but said the Justice Department’s process “seems to be a little too permissive.”
In general, “when you’re dealing with people who have committed crimes, you’re going to get some repeat offenders, but the focus shouldn’t just be on people who mess up or reoffend,” he said. Dershowitz added: People returned to their lives, returned to their families, and contributed to their communities. ”
Aleph Institute did not respond to a request for comment.
The institute previously told the Times that Esformes’ family had donated tens of thousands of dollars to the organization in the years since his indictment, and that the donations had nothing to do with support for the pardon. He claimed that there was no. The organization later told the Post it had refunded the donations to Esform’s family.
Months after the sentence was commuted, prosecutors moved to retry Mr. Esformes on six charges from the original indictment, on which the jury had deadlocked. Esformes’ attorneys said the unusual move was a retaliation by President Biden’s Justice Department to nullify the effects of Trump’s pardon grants, a lawsuit embraced by influential Trump allies and others. He claimed that there was.
Prosecutors argued that the reduced sentence did not affect the six counts.
Esformes pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud to avoid another trial. The Department of Justice agreed to drop the remaining counts. He received credit for time already served and was not given any additional prison time.
Paul E. Pelletier, a former federal prosecutor in Florida who tackled Medicare fraud among clinics, remains disappointed that Esformes’ criminal sentence was reduced and is facing new charges. He said he was not surprised to see that.
Alain Delaquérière contributed to the research.
