U.S. prosecutors investigating potential White House 'bribery-for-pardon' scheme

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U.S. prosecutors investigating potential White House 'bribery-for-pardon' scheme

By Jan Wolfe

 

Workers construct viewing stands for the 2021 Inaugural Parade in front of the White House, near the memorial fence at Black Live Matter Plaza in Washington, U.S. December 1, 2020. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

 

(Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is investigating a potential crime related to funneling money to the White House in exchange for a presidential pardon, according to court documents unsealed in federal court.

 

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell on Tuesday released a heavily redacted order that described what she called a "bribery-for-pardon" investigation.

 

About half of the 18-page document was blacked out, with the publicly available version providing few details of the alleged scheme, and naming none of the people potentially involved.

 

It said federal prosecutors in Washington said they had obtained evidence of a bribery scheme in which someone "would offer a substantial political contribution in exchange for a presidential pardon or reprieve of sentence."

 

The order said prosecutors were also investigating a "secret lobbying scheme" in which two unidentified individuals "acted as lobbyists to senior White House officials, without complying with the registration requirement of the Lobbying Disclosure Act."

 

The Justice Department had to ask Howell's permission to view certain emails between a lawyer and clients, who were not identified.

Howell granted the request in August, saying attorney-client privilege did not apply in that instance.

 

Prosecutors had said they planned to "confront" three unnamed individuals with the communications and finish their investigation.

 

According to Howell's order, government investigators said they had seized "over fifty digital media devices, including iPhones, iPads, laptops, thumb drives, and computer and external hard drives."

 

A Justice Department spokeswoman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

 

Presidents enjoy wide latitude under the U.S. Constitution in pardoning people convicted of federal crimes. President Donald Trump last week pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

 

That was the first of what is expected to be a string of pardons in Trump's final weeks in the White House.

 

According to Howell's order, the Justice Department had recently told her it wanted to keep the investigation from becoming public because it detailed "individuals and conduct" that had not yet been charged.

 

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Scott Malone and Tom Brown)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-12-02

 

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[mtls2005]

Court filing...

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/01/politics/doj-pardon-investigation-court-filing/index.html

 

This sounds like someone already convicted and in jail pushing, through an intermediary, for a pardon in exchange for dosh. Hard to determine exactly who (intermediary) it might be? Seems like it may be a lawyer ("lawyer-ish"), maybe one in the WH.

 

barr was at the WH today (Tue) for 2+ hours.

 

 

This is unrelated to the NYT article about potential pardons for rudy, don jr, eric, ivanka and jared. No pardon for tiffany evidently?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 2, 2020 by mtls2005

[tonray]

Trump supporters urge the President to pardon himself and his entire family. I don't recall President Obama pardoning his family...and if he had imagine the night Fox News would have had !

[Tug]

To me this is (if true) is the definition of corruption truly dragging the country down to the banana republic level 

[bendejo]

15 minutes ago, Tug said:

To me this is (if true) is the definition of corruption truly dragging the country down to the banana republic level 

Already there, nearly 4 years now.

 

 

[Chomper Higgot]

Why am I not in the least bit surprised?!

 

On the upside, if proven this will go a long way to overturning any other Pardon’s Trump issues.

 

Let’s get back to nobody above the law and justice not for sale.

 

 

[PatOngo]

Wait for the clown Trump to echo the clown Nixon "I'm not a crook"! Stormy Daniels has more integrity than the Donald!

[Chomper Higgot]

What’s also interesting is Barr hasn’t stepped in to quash this.

 

What a difference an election makes.

[bendejo]

So all this is a tacit admission that all his kids, including son-in-law, and Rudy are criminals.

What are their crimes?  They should have to allocute, like Flynn did.

 

[Dumbastheycome]

4 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

What’s also interesting is Barr hasn’t stepped in to quash this.

 

What a difference an election makes.

Perhaps Barr is too close to the noise?

I believe there will be a lot of dirty laundry yet to discover.

[Gulfsailor]

Ted Suhl? 

[mtls2005]

16 minutes ago, Gulfsailor said:

Ted Suhl? 

 

Not sure? mike huckabee pushed hard for this one.

 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-trump-commutes-sentence-ted-suhl/

 

https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/ted-suhl

 

Allison Bragg, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Arkansas, said she didn’t know whether her office had declined to pursue the matter but added that it’s “not terribly unusual” for Washington to take on a case. “We are a pretty small office.”

Edited December 2, 2020 by mtls2005

[Gulfsailor]

1 minute ago, mtls2005 said:

 

Not sure? huckabee pushed hard for this one.

 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-trump-commutes-sentence-ted-suhl/

 

https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/ted-suhl

 

Allison Bragg, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Arkansas, said she didn’t know whether her office had declined to pursue the matter but added that it’s “not terribly unusual” for Washington to take on a case. “We are a pretty small office.”

In July 2019 he was pardoned. The same month Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Mike Huckabee’s daughter) left the WH. Sarah is now aiming for governorship of Arkansas...

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Should we be surprised?  It's Trump and the Trump Admin., where money Trumps all.

 

In all likelihood, whatever's going on with this is only the tip of the Trump iceberg.

 

Lock em up!!!  That's what he says, right?

[mtls2005]

Some speculation by court/DoJ watchers: roger stone.

 

Seems weird, but maybe stone blackmailed trump - he has dirt on trump, who doesn't - in return for the pardon?

[ballpoint]

2 hours ago, keith101 said:

Trump needs millions of dollars for debts owed so this doesnt surprise me at all , he is willing to do anything legal or illegal during his time in the White House .

Maybe thats where some of the 150 million in contributions has come from .

It's good that America will soon be going back to a fundamental president, as opposed to now, where people are being asked to fund a mental president.

[Chomper Higgot]

So much for draining the swamp.

 

But credit given where credit is due, the heat on Trump has caused his most ardent supporters to evaporate.

[candide]

19 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

So much for draining the swamp.

 

But credit given where credit is due, the heat on Trump has caused his most ardent supporters to evaporate.

Trump's threads are enjoying the same fate as Prayuth's threads! ????

[Proboscis]

6 hours ago, tonray said:

Trump supporters urge the President to pardon himself and his entire family. I don't recall President Obama pardoning his family...and if he had imagine the night Fox News would have had !

The trouble for Trump pardoning himself/family is that he has to pardon specific crimes. Whether a presidential self-pardon is indeed possible legally, there is no such thing as a blanket pardon. So he and his family would have to admit to crimes. That would be interesting.

 

If he/his family accept the pardons, they can no longer plead the fifth and have to spill the beans.

 

In addition, presidential pardons only cover federal crimes, not state crimes. Those prosecutors in New York Southern District have not been burning the midnight oil for nothing.

[Zenwind]

Lock him up!

[Emdog]

The USA is not a banana republic: we don't grow all that many

The USA is an orange republic, at least for now

Stone's sentence was commuted. Why? If he were pardoned, he'd have to testify or face more jail time. Commutation leaves him free but still able to keep his yap shut by taking 5th. Didn't happen by accident...

[Salerno]

32 minutes ago, Proboscis said:

The trouble for Trump pardoning himself/family is that he has to pardon specific crimes. Whether a presidential self-pardon is indeed possible legally, there is no such thing as a blanket pardon.

 

What about Nixon's pardon?

 

[Sujo]

So draining the swamp means it was so bad under trump that he needs to pardon everyone. Jeez there must be some serious swamp dwellers.

 

The lucky ones got out early.

[Sujo]

1 minute ago, Salerno said:

 

What about Nixon's pardon?

 

Nixon didnt pardon himself. Nor did ford pardon him for anything after his presidency.

 

Trump is in trouble before, during and after. But he cannot pardon state crimes, hence fighting his tax returns.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, Proboscis said:

Whether a presidential self-pardon is indeed possible legally, there is no such thing as a blanket pardon. So he and his family would have to admit to crimes. That would be interesting.

 

In reading the NY Times on that general subject, the explanation seems pretty confusing and contradictory. For example:

 

On one hand:

 

Quote

Last week, Mr. Trump pardoned his former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, who had backed out of his cooperation agreement with the special counsel’s office for “any and all possible offenses” beyond the charge he had faced of lying to federal investigators.

 

And there's no sign there that Trump's pardon of Flynn had to elaborate on what other legally questionable things Flynn may have been involved in...

 

But, on the other hand:

 

Quote

Legal experts say that if Mr. Trump wants to fully protect Mr. Giuliani from prosecution after he leaves office, the president would most likely have to detail in the language of the pardon what crimes he believed Mr. Giuliani had committed.

 

So, which is it???  I'm confused...

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/01/us/politics/rudy-giuliani-pardon.html

 

Edited December 2, 2020 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

48 minutes ago, Salerno said:

What about Nixon's pardon?

 

 

Apparently, the president can grant a federal pardon for any federal things that have occurred up to the point of the pardon, even if criminal charges were only brought later.

 

But he can't grant a federal pardon for future conduct, AFAIK.

[johnnybangkok]

Just when you thought he couldn't scrape the bottom of the barrel any more than he already has, up pops another scandal.

I mean is anyone REALLY surprised about this? 

I'm not.

[Eric Loh]

1 minute ago, johnnybangkok said:

Just when you thought he couldn't scrape the bottom of the barrel any more than he already has, up pops another scandal.

I mean is anyone REALLY surprised about this? 

I'm not.

How low has USA sank last 4 years and to think that there are 74 millions voted for him is simply embarrassing and shocking.  

[Caldera]

Surely Trump would never pardon anyone for money, considering that he's the greatest president of all times. 555

[TigerandDog]

My question is this.How can Trump pardon himself and all his cronies BEFORE they are convicted. None of them will be convicted until after Biden is sworn in.