The Daily Caller logo
Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Biggs Accuses DOJ Of Undermining Presidential Clemencies

Bill Clark:CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images 23122

Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Henry Rodgers Chief National Correspondent
Font Size:

Republican Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs sent a letter Friday to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to explain its decision to re-prosecute a case in which former President Donald Trump already granted clemency.

The Daily Caller first obtained the letter, which focuses on former nursing home owner Philip Esformes. The DOJ charged Esformes in 2016 with healthcare fraud, money laundering and bribery in a multi-count indictment, and in 2019 Esformes was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In 2020, Trump commuted Esformes’ sentence to time served, based in part on the recommendations of former U.S. Attorneys General Edwin Meese and Michael Mukasey and former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson.

In the letter, Biggs states that during litigation, a federal magistrate found that the Justice Department prosecutors committed misconduct by reviewing over 70 boxes containing information covered by attorney-client privilege and then tried to cover it up. Biggs mentions that former Attorney General John Ashcroft described the DOJ’s behavior as “amongst the most abusive” he had seen.

“For years, the DOJ has unjustly and unlawfully targeted its political opponents,” Biggs told the Caller before sending the letter. “The Philip Esformes case highlights what most Americans already know: Our nation has a two-tier justice system and it does not serve the American people fairly. The DOJ is using the Esformes case as a trial case to set aside all clemencies granted by President Trump. This is a reckless move that is contrary to American history and further indicates how weaponized the DOJ has become.”

The Biden administration has announced its intention to prosecute Esformes for charges on which the jury did not reach final decisions. (RELATED: ‘Fundamentally Unjust’: Former AG Blasts Biden DOJ For Pursuing Retrial Of Trump Clemency Recipient)

READ THE LETTER HERE: 

(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers

“Mr. Esformes has already served time and has been publicly humiliated. Re-prosecuting a case that has already been commuted by a former U.S. president is unprecedented and would set a dangerous path forward,” Biggs told the Caller. “In fact, a re-prosecution would permit virtually all presidential grants of clemency to be overturned—undermining this constitutional authority. Attorney General Garland cannot continue down this unprecedented path that can turn our nation into a Banana Republic. He must provide immediate answers to the questions found in my letter.”

American Conservative Union (ACU) Chairman Matt Schlapp defended Biggs’ letter and Esformes in a statement to the Caller.

“There is a growing alarm that Biden’s DOJ has become an arm of the DNC, focused on punishing political enemies in a corrupt misuse of their power,” Schlapp said. “Tragically this deviation from Constitutional parameters is undermining any step President Trump took as part of his legitimate Presidency including the Pardon power. We applaud Andy Biggs for seeing this politicized abuse of power at DOJ and for encouraging his colleagues to stop the AG’s attempt to normalize prosecutorial excess and to undermine legitimate decisions exercised by President Trump. We are looking forward to more members of Congress engaging on this outrageous effort to retry those who have been given a presidential commutation.”
“[The Conservative Political Action Conference] joins several former U.S. AG’s in saying that Mr. Esformes’s prosecution was rotten from the start and it is time for him to resume his American life without living in fear of being made an example of swamp hatred of the former president,” Schlapp added.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to the Caller’s inquiry about the letter.

Editor’s Note: After publication, a quote from Rep. Biggs was adjusted for accuracy.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

 You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

 You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

 You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

 You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

 You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

 You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters ✔ ✔ ✔
Daily Caller Shows ✔ ✔ ✔
Ad Free Experience ✔ ✔ ✔
Exclusive Articles ✔ ✔ ✔
Custom Newsletters ✔ ✔ ✔
Editor Daily Rundown ✔ ✔ ✔
Behind The Scenes Coverage ✔ ✔
Award Winning Documentaries ✔ ✔
Patriot War Room ✔ ✔
Patriot Live Chat ✔ ✔
Exclusive Events ✔
Gold Membership Card ✔
Tucker Mug ✔

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel