New Investigation Reveals How to Secure a Pardon from Donald Trump

A Reuters investigation reveals a dramatic shift in the pardon process in the United States. According to the report, the traditional Justice Department pardon process has been pushed aside, and in its place an informal system has emerged in which close associates, lobbyists and political influencers play a central role in forwarding pardon requests directly to the White House.

The report describes a case in which Trevor Milton, an electric vehicle entrepreneur, received a pardon after being convicted of defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars. According to recordings of the conversations reviewed, the president told him that “you had a lot of support” and that “there were people who thought the case against you was unfair,” and also referred him to one of the supporters. The article quotes a source involved in the field as saying that “you need to create a story similar to what the president himself experienced, and then pass it on to people at the White House.”

It was also claimed that hundreds of influencers and political contacts were involved in promoting hundreds of pardon requests, with some of them working on more than one case. Some of those involved have direct political ties or have themselves received pardons in the past. In response, a White House spokeswoman said that “the pardon power belongs to the president alone,” and that “there is an orderly process that includes the White House and the Justice Department.”