Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump’s LINGERING STENCH of Fraud gets FUMIGATED by DOJ

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

Joe Biden’s Department of Justice continues to clean up behind the elephant and the mess created by Donald Trump in the waining days of his administration as he gave out pardons and commuted sentences to convicted felons that happened to be his friends because Jared Kushner, or Kim Kardashian told him to. Michael Popok of Legal AF reports on the department of justice, reviewing the pardon files of Trump, and deciding to retry a healthcare fraudster in Miami named Phil Esfornes who ran one of the worst healthcare scams against Medicaid and Medicare ever recorded but who was let out of jail by Donald Trump. Maga Republicans may be jumping up and down, but this just shows that Department of Justice takes its name seriously. Go Right Now for 50% off your no-risk two week trial at https://TryNom.com/LEGALAF Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 American Psyop: https://pod.link/1652143101 Burn the Boats: https://pod.link/1485464343 Majority 54: https://pod.link/1309354521 Political Beatdown: https://pod.link/1669634407 Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://pod.link/1676844320 Uncovered: https://pod.link/1690214260 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

is my copopak legal AF, you know, one thing the Department of Justice under Joe Biden does clean up behind the elephant that was the way Donald Trump handled the pardon and clemency process when he was in office. He Donald Trump never did it properly, didn't listen to vetting by the Department of Justice about who was eligible or suitable to have their sentences shortened or their crimes pardoned by the president. He just had a list prepared primarily by Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, who handed him a list. And, you know, if he knew the guy or played golf with the guy or a person, he just said,

yeah, let's cut his sentence in half or let's, you know, this is the one of the reasons that Donald Trump is unsuitable to ever hold the highest office in the land. It's just the way he handled these things. It's such a childish fashion without any regard to jurisprudence justice, his own department of justice at all, and just relied on people like Jared Kushner, you know, or Kim Kardashian lobbying him for any one particular person. And it's all come ahead. It's all come to a head. As I said, the department of justice is cleaning up behind the elephant. And one thing in particular they're doing is checking all the people who had their sentences shortened and to see if there was any way to retry them and get another conviction that won't be pardoned or commuted by the next president

or the current president. Now, you can't do that for people who had their crimes completely pardoned because it is what it sounds like. You can't be tried again for those particular specific crimes for which you were previously tried because you have been part and by the then president. That part and power can't be challenged in the Supreme Court or by any other future president. You can't rescind somebody's part. And it's the ultimate power given to the president of the United States by our constitution. Commutation or clemency, this type of clemency, commuting somebody's sentence is different.

In commuting somebody's sentence, you're shortening the time that somebody has served. And similarly for the same crime, on the same facts, where a jury has reached a verdict, that's the operative term, against you, your sentence has been reduced and the new president can't pump it up. Well, you the the Trump administration or Trump cut your sentence down to five years from 20. I'm going to put it back up to 20. Can't do that either. It's all part of the clemency or part and power of the presidency, except in a unique

situation where you've gone to trial. You've been convicted of some counts but not all counts, and the jury never reached a decision on other counts of your indictment. That brings us to the sort and tale of Phil S. Furnace. Phil S. Furnace was at one time a Playboy multi-millionaire health care executive whose father started a chain of nursing homes that he inherited when he was a small boy. And then when he got the company, much like Donald Trump getting his company from his father, he completely destroyed the business model and the business and committed healthcare fraud over and over again. Such a large healthcare fraud and scam, which resulted in tens of millions of dollars

going to him that shouldn't have in the fraudulent scheme, that the judge in the Southern District of Florida in Miami presiding over the case, who I know well, because he used to be on the state court in Miami and actually played on a softball team with me, a charity tournament. That judge looked at all of the facts having heard all the evidence in a trial and during his sentencing of Phyllis Fornis said, this is one of the worst scandals and fraud I've ever seen and sent in Sim to 20 years, to zero years, in jail, in federal penitentiary related to it. The guy was so bad, and it was such a potential flight risk, that he served three years in detention before trial, because they thought he was going to fly off to Israel or to other

places where he had power and access and money. So he served three years in jail, and then he went to jail on a 20 year sentence until Donald Trump took office and on the waiting days, the last gas and the fumes of the Trump administration because Jared Kushner and others told him to and others lobbied for S forness, including a former attorney general's on the Republican side and others brought to Trump by an organization called the Aleph or Aleph, ALEPH. It's the first letter that he brought about. Organization lobbied Donald Trump to commute Phil S. Fordous's sentences claiming that

he was the, that he's a new man, that he's studying to be a rabbi, that he's become very religious, that he's got a health condition, and his father was a rabbi and all of that. What they didn't reveal at the time is that his father, a huge healthcare executive, had donated millions of dollars to the Allef organization, the very organization that was supposedly advocating for fellow esophort's to have a sentence

commuted. Now Donald Trump didn't pardon, this is the key, did not pardon S. Furnace for all the crimes that he committed for which he was sentenced 20 years to jail. He just shortened his sentence from 20 down to five years and since he'd already served about five years at that point, he was let out of jail immediately. The next set of pictures you saw a Phyllis Fornis, supposedly ill, dying of some disease, and now studying, Talmudically, for his religion, was looking tan, ready, and rested,

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If your dog's tail isn't wagging within 30 days, no mnome will refund your first order. No fillers? No nonsense? Just no mnome. Go right now for 50% off your no-risk 2 trial at trynome.com slash legal a f spelled try n o m dot com slash legal a f for 50% off trynome.com slash legal a f. But unfortunately for him, unfortunately for us in justice, the jury in Miami deadlocked on six counts of the healthcare front. They didn't reach a verdict, meaning the Department of Justice now led by Marik Garland

under Joe Biden can go back after Asfornas and clean up behind the elephant and try his case again for those six and try to put them in jail again. That's the danger when you get us commuted sentence for your clemency and not a pardon. That's what happened as for us. Everybody's all upset on the Republican side. I guess they like health care fraud. I like, I guess they like Medicare health care fraud where he is paying and bribing doctors to send people to his assisted living facility in nursing

homes and to get treatment they don't need. I guess that's okay with Nikki Haley because she's very upset about the fact that the Justice Department is going after Phil S. Fordis again. Look, you want to make an argument about the weaponization of the Department of Justice because it's a great talking point while you're running unsuccessfully for the presidency. Have at it. But to use Phyllis Fores as your poster boy, the guy that ripped off to hundreds of millions of dollars of Medicare and Medicaid fraud, meaning our taxpayer dollars and money that could have went to you and me and our grandparents and mothers and aging people in our life.

Wrong guy. Wrong guy. The guy that misled even the olive organization in Donald Trump by extension by arguing that he was dying of some disease in jail when he wasn't lied again. Just to show how bad this guy was, he actually also as part of the other crimes that he committed or other bad acts that were part of his sentencing member and member Amda that went to the judge. He spent $300,000 because he likes to bribe people. So he spent $300,000 trying to bribe the basketball coach at the University of Pennsylvania and Ivy League School to give his son a scholarship. Right?

So it's not just the $40 million he earned in Ilgott and Gaines for running a fraud against the American people in taxpayer, but it's also the he brought he's bribing left and right, including trying to get is probably not that talented or not that tall son to play for the University of Pennsylvania Ivy League school on its basketball team. So he got sentenced. He got sentenced in Southern District of Florida. And in addition to being sentenced, he had to pay a $5.5 million restitution. And he had to spend and $40 million for zero in asset for a feature. So he gave up $40 million plus five, $45 million went out the door, and it went back and judge Scola,

the guy plays a very good short stop, by the way, back in the day on a softball team. Said it was the most egregious healthcare fraud he's ever seen. And now you've got the to talk about both sides ism. You got Maga right wing Republicans who are jumping up and down because the Department of Justice is putting is trying to put somebody back in jail who deserves to be back in jail because all he got is sentence commuted, right? But if Donald Trump was thinking, or anybody was focused on anything, he would have partened him for all of his sins and not just cut

his sentence by two thirds. And now the Department of Justice is looking back over the files of all the people that Donald Trump partnered to give clemency to to see if any of them deserve to be retried. It's not double jeopardy to be tried a second time for counts that the jury did not reach a verdict on. So, jeopardy did not attach. Jeopardy attaches generally, as that concept is known, when there's a verdict. Thumb up or thumb down, when there's no thumb, Jerry doesn't reach a verdict. Jeffrey does an attach. And if the look of the Department of Justice right after that

wanted to retry him for the other counts they could have. They just decided not to because they got a 20 year sentence out of Judge Scola for a Phyllis for us. But now the new Department of Justice can do the right thing. and that's what we're watching. We're gonna watch the Department of Justice, not because it's weaponized, but because it's interested in justice, it's in its title, one place, the Midas Touch Network. That's where I do my legal analysis

at the corner of law politics and justice. Here in hot takes like this one, about every day, if not every hour, and then on a podcast called, wait for it, legal AF, you may have known that already. And that's the leading podcast for law in politics. It's only one place. It's on the Midas Touch Network. Yes, the title is what you think. It's Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

Do it with Karen Friedman, Agnifalo on Wednesdays with Ben, my Salis on Saturdays, and then you can get it on audio podcasts wherever you get your audio podcasts from. We do it a full length one hour audio, just like a hot take, except I've got a co-anchor that I get to bounce ideas around with and use our legal knowledge as a 32-year practicing trial lawyer. In matters just like this, what in courts, just like this, and in judges, some of which I may even know that I can tell you about, including ones that have a pretty good stick and are very good at playing short stuff.

Until my next legal AF, until my next hot take, this is Michael Popok, legal AF. Hey, Midas, Mighty. Love this report. Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram. At MidasTouch to keep up with the most important news of the day. What are you waiting for? Follow us now.