Mark Osler, professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, recently spoke with The Washington Post about clemency granted by former President Trump to Phillip Esformes, who was convicted of leading one of the largest ever health care fraud schemes.
From the story in The Washington Post:
Supporters say that Esformes’s retrial raises questions about the double jeopardy clause in the Constitution because the judge took the hung charges into account when fashioning Esformes’s sentence. He and the prosecutor also made comments that gave Esformes reason to think he would never be retried, according to court transcripts. “I don’t know what more you are going to get out of the case if you try those additional counts,” Judge Scola said to the prosecution, referring to the hung counts.
But one clemency expert who spoke at the congressional hearing, Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor and professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, said he has declined to join the outcry against Esformes’s retrial.
“My pro bono activity is on behalf of people in prison who are poor and wait for clemency for years, not this one really rich guy who got plucked out,” he said.
