Biden's Justice Department changes presidential pardons for the worse

There is no longer equal justice in the United States.

Yep, Biden is creating more and more like a Department if Injustice it seems.

Let us not forget that had it not been for a leak to CBS, we probably wouldn't even know about the Biden document. They would have buried that too.

Trump's pardons of Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and General Flynn were unpardonable...

I doubt if you can even name their "crimes".

Trump's pardons of Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and General Flynn were unpardonable...

Damn good thing then that they don't have to be pardoned by any leftists.

Trump's pardons of Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and General Flynn were

PERFECTLY LEGAL!

They keep trying to set precedents that will eventually come back to haunt them.

What precedents they have set have been absolute shit.

So...  I've never heard about this case.  I'm not sure what to believe here.  First, we have a judge who, while he called the prosecutor "deplorable"  still saw fit to sentence him to 20 years.  Second, I think that if a prosecutor doesn't try to find as much evidence as possible he's not really doing his job.  I also think that since that evidence apparently ended in convictions on 20 counts it means that he did it.

Nobody is even asserting that he's not guilty.  I'd bet his victims agree.

First, we have a judge who, while he called the prosecutor "deplorable"  still saw fit to sentence him to 20 years. 

It was a jury trial. The jury found the defendant guilty. No matter what the judge feels there are sentencing guidelines he has to adhere to.

Second, I think that if a prosecutor doesn't try to find as much evidence as possible he's not really doing his job.  I also think that since that evidence apparently ended in convictions on 20 counts it means that he did it.

The prosecutor broke the damn law to get the evidence. Do you have the slightest comprehension of what that means? Democrats are removing attorney/client privilege. Don't worry, I am sure this to will come back to bite them in the ass when it is one of theirs that has their rights violated in the same manner.

 Nobody is even asserting that he's not guilty. 

A jury convicted him on 20 counts using criminally obtained information. They could reach a decision on the final 6 counts. Since his rights were violated Trump commuted his sentence. The partisan POS DOJ is seeking now to retry him on the 6 counts the jury couldn't reach a decision on. In case you missed it; this just isn't done.

Still stinging from the criticism of prosecutorial misconduct two years later, the Justice Department is working feverishly to reverse Trump's clemency decision. DOJ intends to re-try Esformes on the six counts where the jury couldn't reach a verdict.

Prosecutors hate when presidents exercise their clemency powers. They view a grant of clemency as implicit criticism of their work. In the Esformes case, that is exactly what it was. This is an extraordinary move by government lawyers whose pride is hurt. In the annals of American history, no prosecutor has ever tried to reverse a presidential commutation in this manner.

The fact is Trump's granting of clemency was intended to end the government's prosecution of Phillip Esformes, according to those who understand the process. But with the Biden administration looking broadly to erase Trump's record, those burrowed in at the Justice Department saw a three-pronged opportunity.

By retrying Esformes, partisan operatives at DOJ could further erode the legacy of the prior administration. They could rewrite the history of the case to cover up the misconduct identified by the magistrate. And they could set a precedent that fundamentally weakens Presidential clemency powers going forward.

Like everything else this will come and bite Democrats in the ass down the road. They will scream, cry, and bitch about how unfair Republicans are- to bad they are the ones that broke all the violins.

Nope, from what I remember of the case the guy was definitely guilty.  But the prosecution was wrong in that they had client/attorney privileged papers and information that they should not have had.  I believe it would have been a different trial with a different outcome if they did not have that information.

Trump was asked to grant clemency to Esformes on the recommendation of numerous respected legal figures, including former Attorneys-General Edwin Meese, Alberto Gonzales, and Michael Mukasey, as well as former Deputy Attorney-General Larry Thompson. These former law enforcement officials saw the prosecutorial misconduct as fundamentally tainting Esformes' conviction.

The the point of this seed is that Biden's DOJ is trying to reverse things and retry him on the six counts the jury did not reach a verdict on.  That's a serious matter that if allowed to go forward will have some serious ramifications down the road.  I don't think that a Presidential Pardon has ever been reversed in this fashion.

The fact is Trump's granting of clemency was intended to end the government's prosecution of Phillip Esformes, according to those who understand the process. But with the Biden administration looking broadly to erase Trump's record, those burrowed in at the Justice Department saw a three-pronged opportunity.

By retrying Esformes, partisan operatives at DOJ could further erode the legacy of the prior administration. They could rewrite the history of the case to cover up the misconduct identified by the magistrate. And they could set a precedent that fundamentally weakens Presidential clemency powers going forward.

The Justice Department's move is audacious. But for those who believe in a strong chief executive, it represents an alarming attempt to undercut presidential authority to review criminal cases and address unfairness, overzealousness, and other miscarriages of justice.

1.  How did he get the client/attorney privileged evidence?  Did they break into their law office and steal it?  Maybe they should be going after his attorney if he was the one giving it to them.

2.  If "the guy was definitely guilty" doesn't the DOJ owe it to the victims to retry this guy on the remaining 6 counts?  Don't they deserve some justice?

1.  How did he get the client/attorney privileged evidence?  Did they break into their law office and steal it?  Maybe they should be going after his attorney if he was the one giving it to them.

Bolding is mine.

Esformes’ lawyers moved to appeal the conviction, based in large part on allegations of prosecutorial misconduct related to violations of attorney-client privilege. During the investigation, agents searched one of the facilities that Esformes operated and seized documents from a law office belonging to one of his civil attorneys.

The government set up a filter team to screen documents for privilege, but two federal judges later found that the process was seriously flawed. Prosecutors and agents working on the investigation were given access to privileged materials for months and on more than one occasion prosecutors used privileged materials in an attempt to aid their probe.

Prosecutors were represented by private counsel at an evidentiary hearing focused on the issue, a highly unusual arrangement in a criminal case.

Both a federal magistrate judge and district court judge condemned the government for its handling of the material, but both rejected the defense’s attempt to disqualify the prosecution team and toss the indictment. The DOJ’s appellee brief conceded that “the government committed several missteps during its investigation.”

Esformes received help in his appeal from a group of powerful allies. Nine former senior DOJ officials serving under administrations of both parties, including four former attorneys general, signed onto an  amicus brief  in support of Esformes. The DOJ officials, represented by Baker Botts, argued that “pervasive privilege violations have irreparably tainted the government’s case against the defendant.”

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As for question 2...

2.  If "the guy was definitely guilty" doesn't the DOJ owe it to the victims to retry this guy on the remaining 6 counts?  Don't they deserve some justice?

The standard process for a Presidential pardon is that it ends the process completely.  It's always been that way for prior presidents.  In this case it seems that Biden is carrying on with a standard that Trump started to remove completely all annotations of the prior guy.  Trump seemed to do the same thing for Obama but he never tried to overturn a pardon issued by Obama.  In this case..

The commutation was far from the end of Esformes’ case. His appeal continued, with the goal of wiping away his conviction altogether, or at least lowering the amount he must pay in restitution.

Meanwhile, prosecutors announced during a status conference in 2021 their intention to retry Esformes on the six hung counts, opening up the possibility that he could be sent back to prison if convicted. A date for the second trial has not yet been set.

His defense lawyers have sought to make the issue part of the appeal, arguing that Trump’s intent in granting clemency was “to end the prosecution and incarceration of Esformes for the conduct at issue in this case.” They secured a supportive declaration from Margaret Love, a former DOJ pardon attorney who now has her own law practice focused on executive clemency. Love found that because Trump specifically mentioned that the term of supervised release and restitution penalty would remain in effect, it was appropriate to conclude that the president intended to end all other aspects of punishment.

The defense further argues that even though the jury deadlocked on the conspiracy to commit health care fraud count, the judge factored the underlying conduct in those counts into the 20-year sentence, which has been commuted. To retry Esformes on that charge and others would amount to double jeopardy, his lawyers argue.

“Esformes’ days of incarceration are done,” the defense wrote in a court filing .

The Justice Department has a far different view. DOJ attorneys argue that the Eleventh Circuit doesn’t even have jurisdiction over the clemency issue because it’s not related to the appeal of his conviction.

The government also contends that the commutation order has no effect on the hung counts because it “impacts only those counts upon which a defendant was sentenced—that is, only those counts upon which a defendant was convicted.”

“If President Trump had intended to grant Esformes a pardon, or if the president had intended to grant Esformes clemency on the hung counts, he would have communicated as much in the clemency warrant,” the department wrote in its filing.

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While IMO the guy was definitely guilty, there are rules that must be followed in a court of law and in this case the prosecution definitely did not follow the rules when they came across and used the attorney / client privileged documents in the trial.  As for the retry, I'm not a lawyer so I'm not going to get too deeply into that but it does seem to me that the act of going after him again for those remaining six charges is more a dig at Trump than actually following the law.  

So... by your logic here shouldn't all the data on Hunter Bidens stolen laptop be inadmissible?

OMG I just googled this Esformes  MF.  This piece of shit stole 1.55 billion from Medicare.  That is, nearly every elderly person in the country.  He is living like a king now thanks to Trump and, since it's thanks to Trump, you guys rally around and want this guy to get away with it.  So much for law and order. 

So... by your logic here shouldn't all the data on Hunter Bidens stolen laptop be inadmissible?

Why?  What attorney / client privileged information was on the laptop? You will need to put a lot more behind your statement for it to make any sense.

And Hunter's laptop wasn't stolen by the way.  He took it into a repair shop and signed the forms for the repair that included a forfeit clause if Hunter did not return to pay the bill and pick up the laptop.  That's standard.  So after the time frame the laptop and contents became the property of the repair shop.  

OMG I just googled this Esformes  MF.  This piece of shit stole 1.55 billion from Medicare.  That is, nearly every elderly person in the country.  He is living like a king now thanks to Trump and, since it's thanks to Trump, you guys rally around and want this guy to get away with it.  So much for law and order. 

No, you are 100% wrong again.  I stated right at the very beginning that the guy was definitely guilty of what he was accused of.  The issue is that the prosecutor didn't properly follow the system and insured they had access to information that they were not legally entitled to have.  If you want to stand up for law and order you need to stand up for all of it, not just the parts you like.  

The data was stolen.  That is illegal.  If illegally obtained information is inadmissible then it's inadmissible.  When they retry this Esformes MF his lawyers should try to get that evidence thrown out.  They may even be successful but they should still retry it.

The data was stolen.  That is illegal.

That's a lie, 

No. Said laptop was abandoned by Hunter and became the property of the computer shop owner. Any data on the computer is now available to the new owner. He wisely made a copy of the hard drive before turning it over to the FBI

No, the laptop and all it's contents were left at the repair shop after the claim date and after the forfeit date so legally the laptop and all contents became the property of the owner of the repair shop.  That information was not illegally obtained.  You are attempting to compare apples to kumquats and ending up with aardvarks.

So where is the evidence?  How long ago was the laptop discovered?  Seems like years now.

The Court of Appeals, 2 R appointees and 1 D appointee, disagreed.

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