Health care fraudster Philip Esformes is latest Trump clemency recipient to be arrested

Philip Esformes, whose 20-year prison sentence for a massive, $1.3 billion Medicare fraud scheme was commuted in 2020 by then-President Donald Trump, was arrested over the weekend in Florida on domestic-violence related charges.

Esformes is at least the seventh person who received executive clemency from Trump, and has since been charged with new crimes, according to The New York Times, which first reported this latest arrest.

In August, a convicted New York drug dealer and predatory lender named Jonathan Braun, whose 10-year prison term Trump commuted in 2021, was charged with assaulting his father-in-law and his wife in separate incidents.

Court records show that Esformes was arrested Saturday and then charged with tampering with a victim or witness, and with criminal mischief involving property damage.

He was booked into the Miami-Dade County jail on Sunday, his 56th birthday.

Esformes was released on Monday after posting two separate bonds totaling $1,650, according to a jail spokeswoman.

A lawyer for Esformes had no immediate comment on the arrest.

CNBC has requested comment from Trump's presidential campaign spokesman.

CNBC also has requested comment from a lawyer for Esformes' ex-wife, Sherri Beth Esformes, whose divorce from him was finalized in July 2020.

Sherri Beth Esformes filed a petition in her ex-husband's federal health care fraud case in August, asserting a 50% property interest in a slew of companies and properties that were deemed forfeitable by Philip Esformes to settle a $38.7 million forfeiture judgment in that case.

A lawyer for Sherri Beth wrote that he legal right to the properties is superior to the interest of the U.S. government in the assets, and that it renders the forfeiture order invalid.

The filing