The U.S. Justice Department wants to retry a Florida nursing home operator who had his 20-year fraud sentence commuted by former President Donald Trump, setting up a novel legal clash over presidential clemency power.
Philip Esformes operated a network of nursing homes in the Miami area and was convicted on 20 federal counts in a sprawling health care fraud case in 2019. The jury also failed to reach a verdict on six counts. But in his final month in office, Trump commuted Esformes’ sentence with support from several former high-ranking DOJ officials, who raised concerns about the conduct of prosecutors in the case.